COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES 
Brussels, 09.04.1997 
COM(97) 155 final 
96/ 0034 (COD) 
OPINION OF THE COMMISSION 
pursuant to Article 189 b (2) (d) of the EC Treaty, 
on the European Parliament's amendments 
to the Council's common position regarding the 
proposal for a 
EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND COUNCIL DECISION 
adapting for the second time 
Decision No 1110/94/EC concerning the Fourth Framework Programme of the 
European Community of activities in the field of research, 
technological development and demonstration (1994-1998) 

1. Introduction 
On 2 February 1996 the Commission submitted to the Council and Parliament a 
proposal for a Decision adapting for the second time Decision No 1110/94/EC 
concerning the Fourth RTD Framework Programme, as amended by 
Decision 616/96/EC. This proposal for additional funding [COM(96)12] was subject 
to revision of the financial perspective. 
The European Parliament gave its opinion on this proposal on 18 June 1996. 
In the absence of revision of the financial perspective, the Commission revised its 
proposal by letter dated 13 November 1996 from Mrs Cresson to the Council and the 
European Parliament and confirmed at the Council meeting on research on 5 
December 1996. Without prejudice to the conclusions of the budget procedure for 
1997, the revised proposal cut the amount of additional funding to ECU 100 million 
for selective refinancing of specific themes under the first activity in the Fourth 
Framework Programme. 
On this basis, the Council adopted its common position on 27 January 1997. 
The Commission gave its opinion on the Council's common position in its 
communication dated 27 January 1997 to the European Parliament [SEC(97)107 
final]. On 13 March 1997 the European Parliament concluded its second reading and 
proposed five amendments to the common position. 
2. Commission opinion 
First, the Commission is pleased to note the special effort made by Parliament to 
complete its second reading within one month of receiving the common position. The 
Commission shares Parliament's opinion on the urgent need for a definitive decision 
on the additional funding to bring it into operation and avoid any interference with 
the discussions on the Fifth Framework Programme. 
The Commission is also interested to note that Parliament opted to make a limited 
number of amendments on second reading. This was possible because the positions 
had already been brought closer together in the course of the codecision procedure. 
In this way, following an amendment proposed by Parliament on first reading, the 
Council's common position included the theme "detection and destruction of 
landmines", a change endorsed by Parliament. Parliament also accepted the urgent 
need and importance of stepping up the research on transmissible spongiform 
encephalopathies, as advocated in the common position. Despite the divergence 
between the Council and Parliament on the overall amount and breakdown of the 
additional funding, the Commission therefore considers that the bases for a definitive 
agreement exist. In order to allow a compromise to emerge between Parliament and 
the Council in the next few weeks, the Commission wishes to take none of 
Parliament's amendments into account at this stage, greatly though it sympathizes 
with their objectives. The Commission feels that the amendments should be 
considered and discussed constructively within the Council Against this 
-2-
background, the Commission also plans to leave a sufficient margin in its preliminary 
draft budget for 1998 to enable the budgetary authority to go beyond the ECU 
100 million already entered in the 1997 budget. 
In conclusion, the Commission reconfirms its will to contribute to formulation of a 
satisfactory, comprehensive agreement between the Council and Parliament. 

ISSN 0254-1475 
COM(97) 155 final 
DOCUMENTS 
EN 15 01 16 
Catalogue number : CB-CO-97-143-EN-C 
ISBN 92-78-18110-2 
Office for Official Publications of the European Communities 
L-2985 Luxembourg 
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