31. 12. 87 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 356/5 
14. Chernobyl has shown that the Member States 
are completely unprepared for coping with a crisis. It 
is extremely important that the Commission should 
address the problem of crisis management in detail, 
even though a large part of the work has to be carried 
out locally. Crisis management covers a host of prob­
lems — what food is safe to eat, which groups are 
particularly exposed (site workers, firemen, police and 
medical services) or at risk (children), evacuation plans, 
preventive medicine (iodine etc.). 
15. Crisis management should also include the train­
ing of these site workers and all help organizations 
referred to above. 
16. There is a need to inform the general public in 
a scientific and comprehensible manner about radiation 
issues. The social partners and consumer interests 
should be involved as widely as possible in consultation on research programmes and in the advance planning 
of crisis-management. 
17. Emphasis should once again be given to the 
suggestions and recommendations contained in three of 
the recent Committee Opinions on 'a draft proposal 
for a Council Decision on a Community system of rapid 
exchange of information in cases of unusually high 
levels of radioactivity or of a nuclear accident'^), on 
'a draft proposal for a Council Regulation laying down 
maximum permitted radioactivity levels for agricultural 
products and drinking water' (*) and on 'the <~r»n«»-
quences of the Chernobyl nuclear accident' (3). conse-
1987, (!) (Opinion of 25 February 1987) OJ No C 105, 21. 4. 
p. 9. 
(2) (Opinion of 13 May 1987) OJ No C 180, 8. 7. 1987, p. 20 
and (Opinion of 2 July 1987) OJ No G 232, 31. 8. 1987. 
(3) (Opinion of 1 July 1987) OJ No C 232, 31. 8. 1987, p. 40. 
Done at Brussels, 18 November 1987. 
The Chairman 
of the Economic and Social Committee 
Alfons MARGOT 
Opinion on the proposal for a Council Decision amending Decision 85/196/EEC concerning 
a multiannual research and development programme of the European Economic Community 
in the field of basic technological research and the application of new technologies (BRITE) 
(1985 to 1988)(*) 
(87/C 356/03) 
On 12 August 1987, the Council of the European Communities decided to consult the 
Economic and Social Committee under Article 130 Q of the Treaty establishing the European 
Economic Community on the abovementioned proposal. 
The Section for Energy, Nuclear Questions and Research, which was responsible for preparing 
the Committee's work on the subject, adopted its Opinion on 6 November 1987 in the light 
of Mr de Normann's report. 
At its 250th plenary session (meeting of 18 November 1987) the Economic and Social 
Committee adopted unanimously the following Opinion: 
1. The BRITE programme provides the needed 
impetus to European cooperation in industrial research. 
(') OJ No C 238, 4. 9. 1987, p. 2. 2. The proposal to amend the original Council 
Decision can be generally supported. 
3. It is right and proper as the proposed amendment 
would have it, that: 
No C 356/6 Official Journal of the European Communities 31. 12. 87 
— the funds estimated as being necessary for the 
implementation of the programme be increased to 
185 million ECU, 
— the programme be given less of an academic bias 
by attaching greater priority to research projects 
involving at least two industrial organizations from 
different Member States, 
— firms or organizations from non-Community 
countries with which the Community has concluded 
framework agreements for scientific and technical 
cooperation be permitted to participate, in order 
to enhance European cooperation in the field of 
research and technological development. 
4. In its Opinion of October 1983 on the original 
Programme proposal, the Committee supported the 
proposal with the following provisos: 
— the funds proposed represented a minimum given 
the importance of the problems to be tackled, 
— in addition to the industries producing high tech­
nology products, the other sectors of industry have 
an important part to play in dealing with the econ­
omic and social problems of the Community and 
their competitiveness must be strengthened, 
— programmes must take account not only of indus­
trial applications but also of general considerations 
of a social and economic nature (including those 
contributing to working conditions and health and 
safety), 
— in the development of new technologies, their effects 
on the health of the workers involved and their 
compatibility with the environment must always be 
investigated, 
— the programme should bring together research by 
academic institutions and industrial research 
through projects covering more than one sector and 
country in order to ensure that cooperation in the 
Community bears fruit, 
— measures to involve small- and medium-sized enter­
prises (SME) should be encouraged. 
5. These principles were again emphasized in the 
Committee's information report and Opinion on 
'EC shared-cost research, development and demon­
stration programmes'^) and in its Information 
Report on 'the importance of technological research 
and development for small- and medium-sized 
enterprises'. 
Nevertheless the following points should now be added: 
(*) OJ No C 207, 18. 8. 1986. 6. This present revision of the BRITE programme 
recommends an increase of funds for the period 1985 
to 1988 to 185 million ECU (including expenditure on 
a staff of 40). A similar amount will be provided by 
industrial partners. 
The funds estimated as necessary for the execution of 
the programme amounted to 125 million ECU (includ­
ing expenditure on a staff of 25) in the original Council 
Decision. 
The Commission should be asked to provide the full 
amount from the funding so far allocated to the Frame­
work Programme of Community Activities in the field 
of research and technological development (1987-1991), 
in order that contract negociations can proceed 
smoothly. 
7. The technical content of the programme has been 
reviewed with independent experts, IRDAC and the 
CGC 'Industrial Technologies'. The overall content of 
the programme will not be changed but the priority 
themes have been substantially revised and now involve 
over 100 clearly defined technical subjects. 
In preparation for BRITE II the Commission proposes 
to include a number of technical subjects not yet 
thoroughly covered in the current programme. 
Technological advance can only succeed in a generally 
acceptable social and economic climate. 
Furthermore, employers and workers should be 
involved in an appropriate way in the assessment and 
introduction of new technologies. 
The Council should ask the Commission to adopt the 
concept of a social impact assessment as an integral 
part of the research and development programmes 
planned for BRITE and of the assessment of the results 
of programmes carried out. 
Each assessment should include an estimate of the 
impact of the results of a successful project on inter 
alia: 
— industrial competitiveness, 
— employment, 
— health and safety of employees, 
— environmental aspects, 
— quality of life and the working environment. 
The Committee would expect to be consulted by the 
Commission should the latter decide to set the guide­
lines and the content of such assessments. 
8. The proposed revision of the programme is aimed 
at increasing the number of projects involving trans­
national partners so as to give clear preference to pro-
31. 12. 87 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 356/7 
jects involving at least two industrial partners from two 
Member States; this is to be welcomed. 
In this respect attention should be drawn to the Com­
mittee's information report on 'The importance of tech­
nological research and development to small- and med­
ium-sized enterprises' in which the vital link between 
industry and higher educational establishments is exam­
ined. 
Therefore the Commission should ensure that such 
establishments are involved in the projects. 
9. The involvement of small- and medium-sized 
enterprises should rise from 30 % of the undertakings 
in the first phase to a proposed 40% in the second 
phase of BRITE I; this too is to be welcomed. 
In order not to compromise the critical size of projects, 
the Commission should encourage the sub-contracting 
of suitable sections of projects to SME by larger indus­
trial participants. This will help to simplify procedures 
for the involvement of SME. 
10. The revision of the programme so as to cover 
the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) countries 
with which the Community has signed framework 
agreements on R&D cooperation, is to be supported. 
Due attention should be given to an appropriate allo­
cation of costs and operational expenses, to the safe­
guarding of confidentiality, and utilization of the pro­
jects. 
It is to be noted that in cases of participation by an 
EFTA country, at least two organizations from two 
different Member States will also be required to partici­
pate. 
The Commission should consider the framework in 
which it would be possible to extend the programme 
still further to other countries. 
11. Attention should be drawn once again on the 
importance to be attached to the organization and use 
of adequate provisions for the utilization of successful 
results (1). 
I1) OJ No C 23, 30. 1. 1984. 
Done at Brussels, 18 November 1987. 12. The preparation by the Commission of financial 
engineering mechanisms to facilitate the financing of 
cooperative transnational projects downstream of the 
precompetitive R&D work undertaken in this pro­
gramme is to be supported. 
The Committee would expect to be consulted on such 
a proposal. 
13. Preparatory work on BRITE II, involving the 
following principles, should be supported: 
a) discussion with trade associations covering various 
industrial sectors on the basis of a questionnaire 
sent to 1 000 establishments in individual subjects. 
It supports such a positive approach to replace the 
former passive advertising of a programme; 
b) coordination of work through a special working 
group of IRDAC which will be reported on during 
two "BRITE days" in December 1987 in which all 
interested partners will have the possibility to dis­
cuss the proposed content of BRITE II. It supports 
the involvement of IRDAC in which the social part­
ners are presented; 
c) deliberate involvement of workshops to provide the 
opportunity to bring together partners in EEC and 
EUREKA projects. In this respect the Commission 
proposes to consider the likely impact on industry 
of projects should they be successful; 
d) the widening of the range of technical subjects 
beyond BRITE I. In this respect to avoid overlap 
the revision of the EURAM programme will be 
prepared in parallel; 
e) To include a mid-term evaluation of BRITE I by 
a method intended to remove any possibility of 
prejudice or bias by those not involved in BRITE 
projects. The Commission has employed consult­
ants to propose an appropriate method for coordi­
nation. The Commission intends to have the evalu­
ation available before the BRITE II proposal is 
presented to the Council. 
It has always been urged by the Committee that new 
proposals be accompanied by an independent assess­
ment of past projects in similar fields. 
The Chairman 
of the Economic and Social Committee 
Alfons MARGOT