European scientific and technological co-operation

Recommendation 1029 (1986)

Author(s):

Parliamentary Assembly

Origin

Assembly debate on 31 January 1986 (28th Sitting) (see Doc. 5506, report of the Committee on Science and Technology). Text adopted by the Assembly on 31 January 1986 (28th Sitting).

Thesaurus

The Assembly,

1. Concerned to arrest and reverse the decline of Europe's industrial competitiveness in certain key areas of advanced technology, as revealed in a large and growing deficit in trade with Japan and the United States over a whole spectrum of high technology products ;

2. Fully endorsing, in this regard, the need expressed by the 6th Parliamentary and Scientific Conference (Tokyo/Tsukuba, 3-6 June 1985) for Europe to turn into "a true technological community" ;

3. Considering that the attainment of this objective is obstructed :

3.1 by the fragmentation and dispersal of Europe's scientific and technological efforts ;

3.2 by the fragmentation of the European market for high technology products, owing to lack of common technical standards ;

3.3 by great differences of scientific and technological capability among European countries ;

4. Concerned that the cultural dimension of international scientific co-operation be fully taken into account, as indicated in its Recommendation 1028 (1986) on the 6th Parliamentary and Scientific Conference ;

5. Recalling the "political declaration" adopted by the Conference of European Ministers responsible for Research (Paris, September 1984), and welcoming the numerous initiatives taken by the scientific community in Europe towards strengthening networks of co-operation (particularly between universities and industry) and improving the intra-European mobility of researchers ;

6. Expressing its unqualified support :

6.1 for the resolutions adopted by the Council of the European Space Agency (Rome meeting at ministerial level, January 1985) on a long-term European space plan and on participation in the United States "space station" project ;

6.2 for decisions taken within the framework of the European Community (Brussels, June 1985) to endow the Community with a technological dimension and to provide for increased co-operation in science and technology with European countries outside the Community, particularly those of EFTA ;

6.3 for the "declaration of principles" adopted by the 2nd Eureka Ministerial Conference (eighteen European countries and Commission of the European Communities, Hanover, November 1985) and the agreements concluded on ten projects ;

7. Stressing the importance of establishing working relations between Eureka and the Council of Europe in keeping with the spirit of the conclusions of the Conference of European Ministers responsible for Research (Paris, September 1984), and welcoming the candidature of Strasbourg as a possible location for the Eureka Secretariat ;

8. Noting that :

8.1 the increasingly rapid and complex interactions and interdependence of science and technology have virtually blurred the distinction between "civilian" and "military" characteristics and potentials of long-term technological research ;

8.2 this development (as noted by the 6th Parliamentary and Scientific Conference) carries the risk of growing restrictions on international scientific and technological exchanges ;

9. Calling on the governments of member states of the Council of Europe :

a to improve mechanisms and incentives for the transfer of resources from national programmes and projects in science and technology to programmes and projects involving European co-operation, and to improve thereby exchanges between researchers ;

b to encourage proposals for large-scale technological and industrial projects which would mobilise across national frontiers the best of Europe's scientists and engineers ;

c to redress imbalances of scientific and technological capability between member countries through specially designed and geographically-focused training and innovation policy measures ;

d to support fully the efforts being made within various European co-operative frameworks towards the definition and harmonisation of standards and regulations for high technology products and services ;

e to make provision for further contributions to the European Science Foundation special fund for the strengthening of networks of scientific co-operation ;

f to continue to support the concerted international (world-wide or regional) activities in basic science, science education and technical training conducted from within the Unesco framework such as (for example) in oceanography, in correlation of geological data, in hydrology and in the study of man's interactions with the biosphere,

10. Recommends that the Committee of Ministers :

a sustain and if possible strengthen those sectors of its Intergovernmental Programme which provide a framework for positive action on the resolutions of the Conference of European Ministers responsible for Research (Paris, September 1984) ;

b assess and make known to the Assembly its assessment in the course of 1986 of follow-up action to the resolutions of the ministerial conference referred to above, as well as of positive action taken by the scientific community in Europe in support of major technological initiatives at European level.