A4-0330/98

Resolution on the communication from the Commission to the Council on the expiry of the ECSC Treaty - financial activities (COM(97)0506 - C4-0573/97)

The European Parliament,

- having regard to the communication from the Commission to the Council, COM(97)0506 final - C4-0573/97,

- having regard to the provisions of the ECSC Treaty and in particular Article 95 thereof,

- having regard to its resolution of 15 November 1996 on the integration of ECSC activities into the Union budget ((OJ C 362, 2.12.1996, p. 327.)),

- having regard to Council resolution 9428/98 of 10 July 1998 on the expiry of the Treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community,

- having regard to the resolution of the ECSC Consultative Committee of 2 April 1998 on promoting the integration of coal and steel in the fifth Community RTD framework programme (1998-2002),

- having regard to the report of the Committee on Budgets and the opinions of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs and Industrial Policy, the Committee on Research, Technological Development and Energy and the Committee on Budgetary Control (A4-0330/98),

A. whereas, pursuant to the Commission communication to the Council and Parliament on the future of the ECSC Treaty (SEC(91)0407) and the meetings of the Industry Council of 29 April 1991 and 24 November 1992, it was decided that the ECSC Treaty would expire on 23 July 2002,

B. whereas the activities carried out under the ECSC Treaty and financed by revenue of a fiscal nature have made it possible to implement sectoral policies which have attained a high degree of integration,

C. whereas the economic and social aids financed by the ECSC have made it possible to overcome the major crises encountered by the coal and steel sectors during recent decades,

D. whereas the restructuring of the coal and steel industries has not been completed and whereas these sectors continue to lose jobs,

E. whereas, therefore, assistance from the ECSC budget is still necessary in the regions affected by these restructuring operations,

F. whereas, apart from the redeployment and conversion aids granted under Article 56 of the Treaty, Article 55 has made it possible to develop research aid which has proved particularly effective and fruitful,

G. whereas the phasing-out of the ECSC is now operational without calling up new resources and the activities still in progress are financed from provisions alone,

1. Recalls that Parliament was the first to concern itself with the phasing-in issue in its resolution of 15 November 1996, to which the Commission, and then the Council, subsequently responded;

2. Deems acceptable the scenario whereby ECSC assets and liabilities and management thereof could be transferred to the Communities remaining;

3. Approves the Commission's guidelines as regards allocation of total assets to the general budget of the Union as earmarked revenue;

4. Takes the view therefore that consultation of Parliament, as an arm of the budgetary authority, and its agreement will be necessary on the same basis as that of the Council;

5. Reaffirms the position it expressed in paragraph 33 of its resolution of 15 November 1996 to the effect that the provisions and reserves accumulated by the ECSC, the value of which the Commission was finally able to assess in its communication, will constitute the capital of the future European Coal and Steel Foundation/Agency;

6. Recommends that interest on the capital arising from the assets of the ECSC in liquidation should be paid into the general budget as annual revenue preallocated to research programmes with one third being earmarked for coal and two thirds for steel;

7. Considers therefore that Parliament and the Council will be empowered to adopt the guidelines for the multiannual programmes in accordance with an ad hoc procedure to be determined when the remaining Communities take over ECSC assets and liabilities;

8. Calls on the Commission to submit concrete proposals on the structure of the Foundation/Agency and the legal framework, composition and operation thereof;

9. Believes that further preparatory work needs to be undertaken before the presentation of a mission statement, mandate, organisational structure and action plan to the Parliament and reaffirms its commitment to take a close interest in the control of the new Foundation/Agency which will succeed the ECSC.

10. Regrets that the Council was unable to reach agreement on giving its assent to the EUR 60 million transfer to the general budget proposed by the Commission, and could therefore not give a positive signal to the first stage of the phasing-in process and budgetise surplus provisions for expenditure in line with the objectives of the ECSC Treaty;

Economic and industrial policy issues

11. Welcomes the Commission communication on the end of ECSC financial activities, which sets out proposals on the future use of ECSC assets;

12. Believes that ECSC research promotion constitutes an exemplary model in terms of its efficiency, the close contacts with industry, and the network of researchers which it has helped to establish;

13. Believes that an independent foundation would offer an appropriate solution but considers that a research promotion arrangement of that type would not be politically achievable at the present time;

14. Calls for ownership of the ECSC assets after the year 2002 to be transferred to the remaining Communities;

15. Considers that the Commission would be well qualified to administer the resources if it proceeded in such a way as to earn the highest possible interest while guaranteeing the greatest possible security for the assets;

16. Supports the proposal that the full amount of interest earned on the assets be invested to promote research in the coal and steel sectors;

17. Takes the view that any research fund should be entirely without prejudice to the right of the coal and steel industry to obtain EU research funding in the general sense under the same conditions as other sectors;

18. Maintains, as a matter of principle, that the life of the research fund should not be limited, but calls for the fund to be subject to appropriate periodic assessment coinciding with the assessment of the general EU research framework programmes;

19. Believes that the research promotion referred to above should be administered in accordance with the tried and tested elements of ECSC research promotion and this should also include dialogue with the social partners,

20. Welcomes the decision of the Amsterdam European Council that the research fund should also be used to support sectors related to the coal and steel industry, since research carried out by producers of basic materials in collaboration with the users of such materials will be an exceptionally important area in the future;

21. Considers that the Commission's proposal to support, among other things, research into biomass is out of place, since that area is not directly related to the coal sector;

22. Considers that the opportunities to develop new steel-based materials have barely been exploited and hopes that research efforts will be intensified in that area in particular;

23. Expects that within technological research, an appropriate place will continue to be found for the social research practised hitherto;

24. Hopes that the share-out of research funding at least in the first years will be based on the proportions of levy receipts generated by the respective sectors;

25. Believes that the involvement of new Member States in the fund should be permitted, provided that they make an appropriate financial contribution to the fund, thereby enabling technical experience to be passed on;

26. Calls on the Commission to submit a communication on the non-financial aspects of the ECSC Treaty, focusing on social issues, the rules on competition, and the statistical system.

Energy and research issues

27. Notes that, as a result of outstanding research work, the EU's coal and steel industry has a competitive advantage throughout the world markets; believes that this advantage and hence the intensity of the research conducted by the EU's coal and steel industry must be maintained and stepped up by all the means available to the Union;

28. Is convinced that as a consequence of the enlargement of the EU to include countries of Central and Eastern Europe, the importance of coal and steel sectors will increase considerably: taking into consideration the countries with which negotiations have started, coal production of the enlarged EU would double, while there would also be a significant increase in steel production; a special research effort would therefore greatly enhance the chances of the modernisation and restructuring programmes implemented in these countries;

29. Urges the Commission and the Council to take every possible measure to maintain and utilise the accumulated in-house and external knowledge and expertise which has been built up over the years in the management and organisation of ECSC research programmes;

30. Calls on the Commission to examine the extent to which ECSC research tasks might in future be assumed by a separate unit for coal and steel research making use of Joint Research Centre infrastructures in the absence of a secretariat of its own;

31. Proposes that research on in-situ coal gasification, and monitoring mechanisms for former mine-workings be included in the future sectoral research programme to be financed as proposed in the Communication;

32. Notes that the European coal and steel industry has acquired a substantial competitive advantage by the efficient and exemplary use of research funds by the ECSC, thus, for example, preventing a situation in which plant for the preliminary de-phosphorisation of pig iron could have been installed only under Japanese licence, and thereby saving the European coal and steel industry at least EUR 46 million;

33. Proposes that the issue of intellectual property rights, and diffusion of research results to SMEs should also constitute an element of the sectoral research programmes;

34. Stresses the importance of completing the phasing-in to the 5th Framework Programme of approximately EUR 80 million per year (at current prices) of research of interest to the coal and steel industry (both producers, users, and employees);

35. Proposes that, in the key action in the 5th Framework Programme which is concerned with an economic and efficient energy supply for a competitive Europe, the point referring to improved exploration, extraction and production efficiency of energy vectors should not be restricted to hydrocarbons, as in the Council's Common Position, but should apply to all fossil fuels, a view shared by the ECSC Consultative Committee;

36. Calls on the Commission, having regard to the importance of the coal and steel industry in some of the countries applying for membership, to submit proposals on how the latter might participate in subsequent advances in coal and steel sector research and make corresponding contributions in the event that accession were to take place after expiry of the ECSC Treaty;

37. Considers that the allocation of research appropriations must be in proportion to the financial contributions of the respective industries.

38. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission and Council.