RE-EXAMINED PROPOSAL FOR A COUNCIL DECISION ADOPTING A SPECIFIC RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME IN THE FIELD OF BIOTECHNOLOGY ( 1990 - 1994 ) - BRIDGE ( BIOTECHNOLOGY RESEARCH FOR INNOVATION, DEVELOPMENT AND GROWTH IN EUROPE )
Date: 1989-11-10
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: EU research policy, biotechnology, research programme

COMMISSION  OF  THE  EUROPEAN  COMMUNITIES 

C0MC89) 545 final - SYN 182 

Brussels, 10 November 19&9 

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Re-examined  proposal  f or  a 

COUNCIL  DECISION 

adopting  a  specific  research  and  technological  development 

programme  in  the  f i e ld  of  biotechnology 

(1990  -  1994) 

B R I D GE 

(Biotechnology  Research for  Innovation, 

Development  and Growth in Europe) 

(presented  by  the  Commission  pursuant  to  A r t i c le  149.2(d) 

of  the  EEC  Treaty) 

EXPLANATORY flEHORANOUH 

(fe^rVf 

1.  On  1 1  October  1909 the European Parliament  in its second  reading of t;h<? 

BRIDGE  proposai  (COM(00)806)  adopted  two  amendments  to  the Common 
Position. 

Pursuant  to  Art. 149  2d of  the EEC  Treaty, the Commission  takes as a 
basis  for  its  re-exarained  proposal  the  Common  Position  with  one 
exception:  the Commission  modifies  the text of the Common Position by 
taking  into  account  the  substance  of  parliamentary  amendment  n° 2 
concerning deliberate release. 

In  countries  where  no  regulations or guidelines governing deliberate 
release currently exist, the Commission believes that  it is necessary  in 
the  implementation of the programme  to place responsibility upon project 
proposers and to have an active  involvement of  national authorities in 
order to  ensure safety.  Therefore,  the Commission modifies the third 
paragraph of the implementation  section of  Action  I  in Annex  I of the 
Common Position  by requiring  that project  proposers, planning to ini 
tiate  release  experiments,  "obtain 
consent"  of  the 
competent authorities  and not  "ascertain that  there is no objection". 
This modification falls  in  line  with  terminology  agreed  in pending 
deliberate  release  legislation  proposed by the Commission  (C0H(88)160 
final). 

the  written 

3.  Comment  of the Commission  on the amendment of Parliament not accepted bv 

the Commission 
As regards  the first  part of amendment n° 1, whilst  the Commission  has 
undertaken to include in all future  specific RDT  programme  proposals a 
provision concerning  the relationship  between the  term "amount deemed 
necessary", the budgetary procedure and the interinstitutional agreement 
on budgetary  discipline it  considers untimely  the introduction of any 
such provision for proposals already submitted  as this  could delay the 
adoption of the programmes concerned. 

The Commission  cannot accept  the second part of amendment  n° 1 because 
the amounts to be allocated  to different research areas are  to be deci 
ded by  the budgetary  authority and  not by the legislature.  Dependent 
upon  the availability of  budgetary  means,  the  Commission  intends to 
commit  at  least  3  MECU  to the third paragraph of  the  implementation 
section of Action II. 

4.  The text of the re-examined  proposal  is to  be found  at Annex  I.  The 
text  of  the  amendment  of  Parliament,  which  is not accepted  by the 
Commission,  is to be found at Annex  II. 

ANNEX 1 

The  Commission  modifies  the  Common  Position  (Annex 1, 

Action  I, Implementation,  third paragraph) as follows: 

Participants  in a project  conducted  as a shared-cost  action 
may  be  industrial  enterprises,  including  small  and  medium 
enterprises, research  institutions, universities or combina 
tions  of  them,  established  in  the  Community  or  in  those 
European  third  countries  which  have  concluded  framework 
agreements in scientific and technical co-operation with the 
Community. Pending the implementation of the provisions of a 
possible  Council  Directive  on  deliberate  release  into  the 
environment  of  genetically  modified  organisms,  proposals 
selected  will  have  to  conform,  in  the  country  where  the 
release  experiment  is  to  take  place,  to  relevant  safety 
regulations  or guidelines;  in  those countries where  no such 
regulations  or  guidelines  have  been  developed,  the  project 
proposers  planning  to  initiate  release  experiments  will 
obtain  the  written  consent  from  the  competent  authorities 
concerned. 

.../... 

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ANNEX  2 

Amendment  n°  1  of  the  European  Parliament 

Article  Z,  third  and,fourth 
paragraphs  (new)  • 

the  context 

procedure. 
to 
propose 

In 
budgetary 
shall 
authority 

Each  year, 
annual 
the 
Commission 
these 
budgetary 
appropriations  be  entered 
the 
programme  on  the  basis  of  the  real 
needs  of 
financial 
year  and  the  financial  estimates  as 
t he 
f e a t u r ed 
Institutional  Agreement. 

reference 

I n t e r-

that 

the 

for 

in 

allocated 

s o d a ! - s c i e n ce s 

A  minimum  of  5% of  the  total  BRIDGE 
to 
s h a ll 
be 
budget 
research  projects  1n  th« 
parallel 
of 
form 
r«s«<rc*i 
the  possible  effect»  o f _ih$. 
Into 
technologies  and  techftjgmt 
generic 
the  BfrJPQf, 
to  be 
supported  unàer 
s o c i a l - s c i e n c es 
programme. 
research 
sub-
the  BRIOCE 
programme  w i t h in 
programme  with  I ts  own  budget  of  not 
l e ss  than  S  m ECU. 

shall  be  a  separate 

The 

c  DN51 

1 6 . 1 0 . 89 

ISSN 0254-1475 

COM(89) 545 final 

DOCUMENTS 

16 

EN * 

Catalogue number : CB-CO-89-504-EN-C 

ISBN 92-77-54411-2 

Office for Official Publications of the European Communities 
L-2985 Luxembourg 

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