CELEX: 51987PC0481
Language: en
Date: 1987-10-22
Title: PROPOSAL FOR A COUNCIL DECISION REVISING THE MULTIANNUAL RESEARCH ACTION PROGRAMME FOR THE EEC IN THE FIELD OF BIOTECHNOLOGY ( 1985/1989 )

20. 1.88                                 Official Journal of the European Communities                              N o C 15/13
              Proposal for a Council Decision revising the multiannual research action programme for the
                        European Economic Community in the field of biotechnology (1985 to 1989)
                                                      COM(87) 481 final/2
                              (Submitted by the Commission to the Council on 29 October 1987)
                                                          (88/C 15/05)
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,                            Whereas it is necessary to step up training activities and
                                                                    to evolve training schemes including, in particular, the
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European               organization of short intensive workshops, allowing
Economic Community, and in particular Article 130 Q                 research scientists in the Member States to benefit from
(2) thereof,                                                        all the research facilities and scientific expertise in the
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,                  Community;
In cooperation with the European Parliament,                        Whereas it is essential to increase the involvement of
                                                                    Community industry in the activities and results orig-
Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and                    inating from the research work under contract;
Social Committee,
                                                                    Whereas it is necessary to step up the concertation
Whereas Article 130 K of the Treaty provides that the
                                                                    activities carried out, alongside the Community research
Framework Programme is to be implemented through
                                                                    and training effort, to improve national and Community
specific programmes developed within each activity;
                                                                    activity in the field of biotechnology;
whereas the Council, when adopting the Framework
Programme of Community activities in technological                  Whereas the recent emergence of certain critical areas of
R & D (1987 to 1991), recognized the interest of                    biological     sciences    (e.g. genome     mapping     and
exploitation and valorization of biological resources, and          sequencing, and the exploitation thereof) means that
particularly biotechnology;                                         Community biotechnology is relatively weak unless
Whereas      the    Council     Decision     85/195/EEC (')         exploratory activity can be rapidly initiated before a new
introduced a multiannual research and training action               programme in biotechnology R & D (1990 to 1994) is
programme for the European Economic Community in                    prepared;
the field of biotechnology; whereas Article 3 of that
                                                                    Whereas it is necessary to ensure participation by Spain
Decision makes provision for the programme to be
                                                                    and Portugal in the activities envisaged by the
revised as from its second year of implementation;
                                                                    programme;
Whereas the re-examination which has been undertaken
                                                                    Whereas the Scientific and Technical               Research
and whose conclusions where transmitted to the Council
                                                                    Committee (CREST) has expressed its opinion,
on 21 May 1986 (2) has led the Commission to present a
proposal for the revision of the programme motivated by
the need to ensure its adequacy to the objective assigned            HAS DECIDED AS FOLLOWS:
to it;
Whereas the implementation of the research and training                                         Article 1
programme for the European Economic Community in
                                                                    The research action programme for the European
the field of biotechnology has proved to be insufficient
                                                                     Economic Community in the field of biotechnology
as yet for setting up, on a scale commensurate with the
                                                                     (1985 to 1989) is hereby revised on the basis of the
 multiple implications of biotechnology in agriculture,
                                                                     specifications in the Annex.
industry and the environment, of transnational
cooperation networks addressing the various levels of
risk and their evaluation;                                                                      Article 2
Whereas the area of bio-informatics requires both to                 The funds necessary to increase and expand the activities
 ascertain the constitution of integrated networks for the           as planned in this revision, to which must be added the
 storage, circulation and treatment of biological data, and          funds already allocated to the programme, are estimated
 to stimulate further computer-aided approaches in                   at 20 million ECU, including expenditure on an
 biotechnological research;                                          additional staff of five.
 (') OJNo L83, 25. 3. 1985, p. 1.
 (2) COM(86) 272 final.
 ---pagebreak--- No C 15/14                             Official Journal of the European Communities                                    20.1.88
                                                                ANNEX
           REVISION OF T H E MULTIANNUAL RESEARCH ACTION PROGRAMME FOR                                            THE
                   EUROPEAN ECONOMIC COMMUNITY IN T H E FIELD OF BIOTECHNOLOGY
                                                             (1985 to 1989)
           — Intensification of the current research effort in the sector of the programme that concerns the
             assessment of risks associated with modern biotechnology, and particularly with the deliberate release
             of genetically engineered organisms.
           — Intensification of the current research effort in the area of information technology with emphasis upon
             processing data related to culture collections, genome sequences and protein modelling.
           — Increase in the volume of current activities (visits, publications, electronic networks, meetings, summer
             workshops, etc.) aiming at a timely dessemination of information on the programme and of research
             results; involvement of Community industry in the research activities and in the utilization of the data,
             materials and methods stemming from the research work under contract.
           — Studies and feasibility pilot projects for the preparation of future Community R & D activities in
             biotechnology during the period 1990 to 1994.
           — Increase in training activities in all parts of the current programme.
           — Matching of resources (manpower) for the concertation activity to the requirements defined in the
             programme.
           — Extension to Spain and Portugal of the totality of the activities envisaged by the programme.