Council Resolution of 26 June 2001 on science and society and on women in science
Date: 2001-06-26
Institutions: Council of the European Union
Subjects: gender equality, public awareness campaign, research policy, scientific education, scientific profession, scientific progress

14.7.2001

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 199/1

I

(Information)

COUNCIL

COUNCIL RESOLUTION

of 26 June 2001

on science and society and on women in science

(2001/C 199/01)

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

7. RECALLING the meeting held on scientific and tech-
nological culture in Lisbon on 10 and 11 May 2001;

1. RECALLING Articles 2 and 3 of the Treaty establishing the
European Community, which enshrine the promotion of
equality between men and women as one of
the
Community’s objectives;

2. RECALLING the Conclusions of the European Councils in
Lisbon on 23 and 24 March 2000 and in Stockholm on 23
and 24 March 2001 on the creation of a European
knowledge-based society,
including the emphasis placed
on education, training and information technology skills
and on the ethical aspects of biotechnology, respectively;

3. RECALLING the Commission’s Communication of 18
January 2000 (cid:145)Towards a European research area(cid:146) as well
as its Communication of 4 October 2000 on (cid:145)Making a
reality of the European research area(cid:146) in which reference is
made to the importance of science and society issues;

4. RECALLING the Council Resolution of 16 November
2000 (1) on the need to deepen the debate on science in
society, to increase public awareness of the issues and to
reinforce the links between research policies and societal
needs;

5. NOTING the Commission’s working document of 16
November 2000 on (cid:145)Science, society and the citizen in
Europe(cid:146), which points to a series of important issues for
both policy-makers and the European citizen and the
Social
own-initiative
Committee of 30 May 2001 on this document;

report of

Economic

and

the

8. BEARING IN MIND the European Technology Assessment
Network (ETAN) report (cid:145)Science policies in the European
through mainstreaming
Union:
gender equality(cid:146) of November 1999;

Promoting

excellence

9. RECALLING the progress accomplished in the Member
States and associated countries since the Commission’s
Communication on (cid:145)Women and science: mobilising
women to enrich European research(cid:146) and the Council
Resolution of 20 May 1999 on women and science (2),
as well as the Resolution by the European Parliament of
3 February 2000 on this communication; WELCOMING the
work of the Helsinki Group;

10. NOTING the Commission’s working document of 15 May
2001 on (cid:145)Women and science: the gender dimension as a
leverage for reforming science(cid:146), which suggests a strategy
on women and science;

11. NOTING the recent CREST report on Science and Society;

12. RECOGNISES the need:

(cid:151) to stimulate a dialogue with society at large on issues
of public interest and concern in the field of science,

(cid:151) to promote interest in science education,

in research

and in careers in science among young people,

6. BEARING IN MIND the discussions on science and society at
the Uppsala informal meeting of Ministers for Education
and Research on 2 March 2001;

(cid:151) to promote the role of women in science and to
stimulate their career prospects in the field of science
and science management,

(1) OJ C 374, 28.12.2000, p. 1.

(2) OJ C 201, 16.7.1999, p. 1.

C 199/2

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Official Journal of the European Communities

14.7.2001

(cid:151) to concentrate and continue efforts to promote gender
mainstreaming both on a European and on a national
level;

13. RECOGNISES that these issues are inherent to all aspects of
scientific and technological advancement, and underlines
the importance of openness regarding scientific advances
and of greater participation by society and stakeholders in
policy-making processes;

14. RECOGNISES that

the proposal

for the sixth framework
programme contributes to the creation of the European
research area and WELCOMES that
the issue of science
and society is included in this proposal as one of the
priority activities; RECOGNISES the need to ensure that
science and society issues are dealth with in a coherent
and coordinated way throughout
the whole framework
programme,

TO THIS END, the Council, in relation to science and society:

15. ENCOURAGES the Member States and the Commission to
explore measures for the networking, benchmarking and
exchange of best practices to improve the science and
society dialogue, including, where appropriate, the exam-
the need to develop common practices and
ination of
guidelines on risk assessment and management and on
the use of scientific advice for governance;

16. ENCOURAGES Member States and the Commission to
undertake efforts to improve public awareness of science
and technology, to stimulate the popularisation of science
and the interest of the media in this respect, including the
possibility of developing a European initiative on scientific
and technological culture, and to boost science education,
in particular by reinforcing the coordination of national
and European activities and policies in these fields, while
emphasising the need to develop strategies to attract the
younger generation to careers in science and technology;

17.

INVITES the Member States and the Commission to
promote,
in close liaison with the scientific community,
regular events of high visibility and quality presenting
important topics of scientific and technological research
issues of
and exploring scientific
interest to the public at large;

and technological

18.

INVITES Member States and the Commission to pursue
activities aimed at initiating a dialogue on ethical
issues
in relation to science and technologies at the European,
national, regional and local levels;

19. RECOMMENDS the Commission,

to

associated

together with represen-
tatives from national
institutions in the Member States
and involving, as appropriate, candidate countries and
countries
research
programmes, to explore the means of promoting coop-
eration with existing bodies operating in this area with a
view to monitoring social, ethical and legal developments
with respect to relevant science and technology research
topics and to increase the exchange of information on
them;

Community

the

20.

INVITES the Commission to submit
its
proposed action plan on science and society before the
end of 2001,

to the Council

TO THIS END, the Council,

in relation to women in science:

21.

INVITES the Commission:

(cid:151) to continue and intensify its efforts to promote the role
of women in science and technology and to ensure an
effective mainstreaming of the gender dimension when
implementing the sixth framework programme and
developing the European research area,

(cid:151) in particular, to promote gender equality in those areas
dealing with human resources and mobility activities,

(cid:151) to pay particular attention to the gender dimension in

benchmarking activities;

22. URGES the Commission to reach its target of a 40 %
participation of women at all levels in implementing and
managing research programmes, while continuing to bear
in mind the need to ensure scientific and technological
excellence;

23.

INVITES Member States and the Commission to pursue the
efforts undertaken to promote women in science at
level, to collect gender-disaggregated statistics in
national
human resources in science and technology and to develop
indicators in order to monitor progress towards equality
between men and women in European research;

24.

INVITES the Member States and the Commission to support
the Helsinki Group in continuing its work, and to deepen
cooperation to promote the role of women in European
research;

25.

INVITES the Commission to report on progress in the area
of women in science within two years.