3rd Ministerial Meeting on Science

Recommendation 537 (1968)

Author(s):

Parliamentary Assembly

Origin

Assembly debate on 25th September 1968 (15th Sitting) (see Doc. 2460, report of the Committee on Science and Technology). Text adopted by the Assembly on 25th September 1968 (15th Sitting).

The Assembly,

1. Welcoming the holding at regular intervals of Ministerial Meetings on Science, and congratulating in particular OECD on its considerable contribution to preparations for the 3rd Meeting ;

2. Considering that the 3rd Meeting, held in March 1968, did much to increase the awareness of governments and of public opinion for the need for a clearly defined science and technology policy which would allow Europe to re-establish its political and economic position and to meet the United States of America on an equal footing ;

3. Noting that the present state of European co-operation in science and technology is marked by growing discontent on the part of all those concerned, and by a permanent state of crisis in the main European scientific organisations ;

4. Aware of the fact that the existing system of international co-operation does not meet the requirements of technical progress and has for that reason reached a deadlock, since the organisation of such co-operation increasingly eludes the control of the governments which latter have no overall view either into the various programmes in which their respective countries participate or into the expenditure incurred in specific spheres of research and development in Europe ;

5. Considering that as a result the European governments are not able - even should they so desire - to make a rational selection of priorities, since they do not possess the means of defining long-term aims or of applying appropriate strategies in order to ensure more effective and profitable international co-operation,

6. Recommends that the Committee of Ministers take steps to see that a detailed study is made of all the structures of international co-operation between European countries in the field of scientific and technological research, and of all the projects under way, this being a prerequisite for the future definition of "European programmes" with clearly defined long-term objectives which would constitute a first step towards discovering and eliminating duplications and shortcomings in the present system.