Opinion of the Commission pursuant to Article 189B(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)
Date: 1997-04-09
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: EU programme, action programme, innovation, research and development, technological change, testing

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 
as  amended  by 
concerning 
Decision 616/96/EC.  This proposal for additional funding  [COM(96)12] was subject 
to revision of the financial perspective. 

the  Fourth  RTD  Framework  Programme, 

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 
this 
considered  and  discussed  constructively  within 

the  Council 

Against 

- 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 

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