European scientific and technological co-operation

Recommendation 573 (1969)

Author(s):

Parliamentary Assembly

Origin

Assembly debate on 3 October 1969 (15th Sitting) (see Doc. 2639, report of the Committee on Science and Technology). Text adopted by the Assembly on 3 October 1969 (15th Sitting).

The Assembly,

1. Considering that European scientific co-operation should be managed in such a way as to command the overall confidence of the parliaments of the Council of Europe member countries ;

2. Recalling Recommendation 400 (1964) in which it affirmed its "determination to contribute to the strengthening of European co-operation in the scientific field",

3. Welcomes the steps which have been taken, since the 2nd Parliamentary and Scientific Conference held at Vienna in 1964, to improve the methods by which science policy is considered in national and international bodies, and, in particular, the initiative of the Secretary General of the Council of Europe in proposing an operational inventory of European co-operation in the scientific and technological field ;

4. Considering the instructions given to the Secretary General at the 44th Session of the Committee of Ministers to renew contact with the heads of the other international organisations and to submit new proposals of a specific and detailed character in respect of this inventory,

5. Notes with satisfaction the Secretary General's intention to develop his new proposals in close cooperation with other international organisations, and in particular with OECD ;

6. Approving, in principle, the choice of an independent research institute as agent for the present study to be sponsored by the Council of Europe,

7. Urges the Committee of Ministers to give sympathetic consideration to any proposal which emerges from the Secretary General's consultations with other interested international organisations ;

8. Recommends that the Committee of Ministers :

a decide that any study undertaken as a result of the Secretary General's initiative shall indicate as clearly as possible the totality of resources committed to European co-operation by member governments in the scientific and technological field ; the management and utilisation of these resources ; and the inter-connections and overlapping between projects conducted in different organisations ;

b make available to the Secretary General such sums as may be necessary to ensure the production of a survey of the necessary detail and depth, in the conviction that, at a time when conditions of financial stringency obtain in many member states, such immediate expenditure is justified in order to lay the basis for a more efficient use of resources in the future ;

c urge member governments and the international organisations concerned to co-operate fully in the production of the study referred to in (a) above.