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Vol. 1985/0 132 
  
 
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Conformément au règlement (CEE, Euratom) n° 354/83 du Conseil du 1er février 1983 
concernant l'ouverture au public des archives historiques de la Communauté économique 
européenne et de la Communauté européenne de l'énergie atomique (JO L 43 du 15.2.1983, 
p. 1), tel que modifié par le règlement (CE, Euratom) n° 1700/2003 du 22 septembre 2003 
(JO L 243 du 27.9.2003, p. 1), ce dossier est ouvert au public. Le cas échéant, les documents 
classifiés présents dans ce dossier ont été déclassifiés conformément à l'article 5 dudit 
règlement. 
In accordance with Council Regulation (EEC, Euratom) No 354/83 of 1 February 1983 
concerning the opening to the public of the historical archives of the European Economic 
Community and the European Atomic Energy Community (OJ L 43, 15.2.1983, p. 1), as 
amended by Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 1700/2003 of 22 September 2003 (OJ L 243, 
27.9.2003, p. 1), t his file is open to the public. Where necessary, classified documents in this 
file have been declassified in conformity with Article 5 of the aforementioned regulation.  
In Übereinstimmung mit der Verordnung (EWG, Euratom) Nr. 354/83 des Rates vom 1. 
Februa r 1983 über die Freigabe der historischen Archive der Europäischen  
Wirtschaftsgemeinschaft und der Europäischen Atomgemeinschaft (ABI. L 43 vom 15.2.1983,  
S. 1), geändert durch die Verordnung (EG, Euratom) Nr. 1700/2003 vom 22. September 2003  
(ABI. L 243 v om 27.9.2003, S. 1), ist diese Datei der Öffentlichkeit zugänglich. Soweit  
erforderlich, wurden die Verschlusssachen in dieser Datei in Übereinstimmung mit Artikel 5  
der genannten Verordnung freigegeben.  
CO M M ISSIO N  OF THE EURO PEA N  C O M M U N ITIE S
COMC85) 320 final
Brussels, 24 June 1985
ON THE STRENGTHENING 
OF TECHNICAL COOPERATION IN EUROPE
Milan, 28 and 29 June 1985
C0MC85) 320 final

^ t > w \  '
TOWARDS A EUROPEAN TECHNOLOGY COMMUNITY
I. THE CHALLENGE
1. To strengthen the Community's technological base
2. The European response
(a) The Community dimension
(b) Mutual support between national and Community efforts
II. ACTION BY THE EUROPEAN TECHNOLOGY COMMUNITY
1. Immediate launching of major talent- and 
resource-mobilizing projects
2. Forms of cooperation
3. Definition of Community projects
4. Mobilization of financial resources
5. Autonomy, decentralization and responsibility
6. Back-up measures
III. A POLITICAL COMMITMENT BY THE EUROPEAN COUNCIL
ANNEX: Suggested themes

TOWARDS A EUROPEAN TECHNOLOGY COMMUNITY
I. THE CHALLENGE
1. To strenthen the Community's technological base
Technological progress has an essential role to play in our societies 
by reason of its impact on economic growth and job creation, social 
and cultural progress, the environment and security. It is 
increasingly becoming an indispensable strategic factor, one which 
(as the Commission stressed in its communication to the Brussels 
meeting of the European Council in March 1985) the Community must 
turn to account if it is to regain its competitiveness, so laying 
the foundation for stronger and more stable growth, and ensure greater 
economic convergence by increasing the innovative capacity of all 
the Member States.
The Community therefore must urgently take matters in hand in order 
to reverse a trend whose consequences are now all too clear: lost 
market shares, less job creation, increased technological dependence 
and brain drain. A collective effort by Europeans to harness the 
new technologies to good purpose is a natural sequel to the venture 
launched by the Schuman Declaration, which called for the pooling 
of the material bases of the European nations' industrial might.
The Commission is accordingly convinced that Europe's response to 
the technological challenge must be to set up a European 
Technology Community.

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2. The European response
To be effective and credible, the response must meet two requirements:
(i) it must exploit the Community dimension to the utmost;
(ii) it must foster the most fruitful interactions possible of 
national and Community efforts.
(a) The Community dimension
The Community dimension offers the following advantages:
(i) It guarantees that demand for the products and services supplied 
by the European projects will develop dynamically through 
the opening up of the corresponding public contracts and the 
adoption of international standards to prevent the walling-off 
of markets and the restriction of competition. There is 
therefore a close link between the Commission's proposals 
for (a) completing the continent-wide market and (b) creating 
a European Technology Community.
(ii) The Community will ensure that the technology effort is
closely tied in with common policies, in particular trade 
policy and competition policy.
(iii) Through cooperation and exchanges, it will increase the
potential of purely national programmes and reduce the wastage 
arising from unnecessary duplication.

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Civ) It will give more scope to the universities, to individual
research workers and to specialized SMEs (sometimes overlooked 
in strictly intergovernmental schemes of cooperation owing 
to the complexity of industrial groupings and institutional 
structures).
(v) Finally, the Community's R&O instruments are immediately 
available and can be adapted to the needs of different 
projects in view of their urgency. Some current programmes 
(ESPRIT, BRITE and the definition phase of RACE) can provide 
a framework for projects which fall within their general field 
such as information technologies, broad-band networks and 
new materials.
Against the advantages of the Community dimension, some might argue 
that the Community's decision-making and management processes are 
complicated and cumbersome. But the aim must be to exploit all the 
possibilities opened up by the Treaties - and if necessary adapt 
their provisions - in order to guarantee that not only are the interests 
of all parties taken into account but also the need for prompt 
decision-making, flexible and decentralized management and 
appropriate financing arrangements.
(b) Mutual support between national and Community efforts
Bridges must be built between programmes at different levels - national, 
intergovernmental and Community - that contribute to common 
scientific and technical aims so that they are integrated into a

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truly Community technological strategy. Projects must be mutually 
enriching whatever their organizational context:
Community programmes proper
- purely national programmes
- pooling by some States, including non-Community countries, of 
national projects which may receive additional support from the 
Community
- synergetic effects of national and Community programmes working 
towards the same goals.
It would therefore be inappropriate to confine the Community's 
contribution to the portion of public R&D expenditure which it finances 
from its own resources, even if that portion is to be substantially 
increased.
II. ACTION BY THE EUROPEAN TECHNOLOGY COMMUNITY
1. Immediate launching of major talent- and resource-mobilizing 
projects
These projects must:
Ci) involve substantial technical progress and be of major economic 
and social benefit in order to arouse business interest and 
attract broad public support;
(ii) be sufficiently concrete to generate industrial innovations 
fitting in with the market strategies of community firms or 
with social or educational goals.

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(iii) use and exploit the technological advances already available in 
Europe;
(iv) attract the best brains to work on interdisciplinary themes.
A number of themes selected on the basis of these criteria are listed 
in the annex.
They suggest projects covering several types of activities which support 
and complement each other, for example:
strategic projects with specific objectives such as big computers 
or the high-speed train;
- advanced research in the field of generic technologies, which are
essential to the implementation of all major projects, such as superconducting 
materials and 64-megabit chips;
- big scientific or technological facilities such as the digital windtunnel 
or the synchrotron for studying condensed matter.
2. Forms of cooperation
In order to implement ambitious programmes the Community framework 
programme must be extended and used to find forms of cooperation which:
(i) draw together for each project all those (governments, firms and 
research centres) wishing to participate on the basis of a clear 
perception of the costs and benefits of their cooperation;

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Ci i  )lead to the establishment of industrial consortia and the 
organization of intergovernmental cooperation in such a way as to 
harness the best available skills;
i  i  i  i  )rely on a European network of research establishments and 
universities in regular touch with each other and able to act 
as centres for generating research and technology and 
disseminating the results;
(iv)allow participation by non-Community partners.
3.Definition of Community projects
For the definition of Community initiative projects the Commission would 
need to be assisted by:
- a high-level group of senior government officials to identify strategic 
options and themes;
- and, for each theme, groups of experts from industry and research to plan 
the projects in detail, with their targets, costs and time scale.
The Community could also be associated with initiatives by several 
Member States which are directed at specific projects.

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4. Mobilization of financial resources
Financing the projects would be a matter for Member States, firms, 
research institutes and the Community. As regards the Community, 
the European Council at its last four meetings laid down the policy 
lines and budget principles to enable the Community to provide substantial 
financial assistance for the execution of projects of Community interest 
without increasing own resources beyond the limits it had already 
set.
Compliance with these guidelines will open up the prospect of substantial 
growth in budget resources allocated to Community RSD.
If the scale on which finance is needed in order to stay on competitive 
terms with other countries is obvious then so is the need for optimum 
resource allocation; hence the need to take account of:
financial contributions from Member States (under the new decision 
on own resources);
- other financing procedures and instruments (borrowing/lending,
EIB, etc.  ).
5. Autonomy, decentralization and responsibility
Each project or group of projects must be run by as small a team as 
possible within organizations having the necessary degree of independence 
and management efficiency and committed to achieving specified targets 
fast enough for advantage to be taken of the scientific and industrial lead.

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Structures Like the joint undertaking or Community agency could be 
developed to meet this decentralized management requirement.
6. Back-up measures
The Community's response to the technological challenge and the 
quantum leap which it implies means that measures to establish a 
genuine "research workers' Europe" must be substantially stepped up.
In view of the constraints which limit the effectiveness of the 
European R&D system, the Commission intends to step up its action in 
pursuit of the following objectives:
(i) better use of human resources, especially by expanding 
cooperation between industry and the universities;
(ii) encouragement of innovative firms, especially SMEs;
(iii) dissemenation of knowledge and development of a free market 
in information;
(iv) strengthening of Community law on intellectual property.
III. A POLITICAL COMMITMENT BY THE EUROPEAN COUNCIL
The European Technology Community could be brought into being 
through a variety of institutional arrangements; these are considered 
in a separate document.

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ALL such arrangements, however, wouLd be founded on a soLemn poLiticaL 
commitment by the Member States to endow the new Community with the 
powers and the resources to take action in its fieLd. It is this 
soLemn commitment which the Commission caLLs on the European CounciL to 
procLaim in MiLan.
Its first step should be to instruct the Commission to Launch at once 
the procedure for defining priority projects with the target of 
obtaining approvaL of some projects by the end of the year.

ANNEX
§u guested _thernes
1. Information technologies and their main applications e.g. 
computer-aided manufacturing, artificial intelligence and 
the supercomputer
2. Biotechnologies, in particular genetic and biomolecular 
engineering and their applications to health and agro-industry
3. New (e.g. superconducting and ceramic) materials
4. Lasers and optics
5. Big science facilities such as particle/radiation sources 
and advanced windtunnels
6. Broadband telecommunications
7. New-generation means of transport
8. Use of space
9. Conquest of the marine environment and deep drilling operations
10. Education and training technologies