CELEX: 51989PC0545
Language: en
Date: 1989-11-10
Title: 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 )

COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES
                                                             C0MC89) 545 final - SYN 182
                                                             Brussels, 10 November 19&9
                                      Re-examined proposal f o r a
                                           COUNCIL DECISION
                    adopting a specific research and technological development
                               programme in the f i e l d of biotechnology
                                             (1990 - 1994)
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                                              B R I D G E
                               (Biotechnology Research for Innovation,
                                  Development and Growth in Europe)
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                     (presented by the Commission pursuant to A r t i c l e 149.2(d)
                                          of the EEC Treaty)
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                            EXPLANATORY flEHORANOUH
 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        the written  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).
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.
 ---pagebreak---                                                                    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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 ---pagebreak---                                                            ANNEX 2
Amendment n° 1 of the European Parliament
           Article Z, third and,fourth
           paragraphs (new) •
           Each year, In the context
            annual       budgetary procedure.
            Commission shall propose to the
            budgetary        authority that         these
            appropriations be entered for the
            programme on the basis of the real
            needs of the reference financial
            year and the financial estimates as
            featured            in     the       Inter-
             Institutional Agreement.
             A minimum of 5% of the total BRIDGE
             budget       shall    be allocated         to
             parallel research projects 1n th«
             form of s o d a ! - s c i e n c e s r«s«<rc*i
             Into the possible effect» o f _ih$.
             generic technologies and techftjgmt
              to be supported unàer the BfrJPQf,
             programme.          The      social-sciences
              research shall be a separate sub-
             programme         within        the BRIOCE
              programme with I t s own budget of not
              l e s s than S m ECU.
c DN51  16.10.89
 ---pagebreak---                                                                        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
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