Text of, and Council's Reasons for, the Common position for a Decision concerning the production and development of Community statistics on science and technology (link)

Brussels, 28 Mar 2003

Full text of Document 14089/1/02 Revision 01

Subject: Common position adopted by the Council on 17 March 2003 with a view to the adoption of a Decision of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning the production and development of Community statistics on science and technology

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Statement of the Council's Reasons
Full text of Document 14089/1/02 Addendum 01 Revision 01

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III. Analysis of the Common position as set out in doc. 14089/02

1. General

In the Common Position the Council:

- incorporated all the amendments of the European Parliament except amendment number 3 on cooperation and consultation with the Helsinki Group;

- amended some recitals, one to cater for the European Parliament amendment number 3, that the Commission was unable to accept in the body of the Decision for legal reasons;

- changed the committee procedure to a regulatory procedure;

1 Doc. 11750/02 RECH 106 ATO 71 FIN 291 CODEC 865, COM (2001)490 final 2 Doc. A5- 0236/2002 of 18 June 2002

2. European Parliament amendments

The Council accepted all European Parliament's amendments, except amendment number 3. Amendment number 2, on cooperation with OECD and other international organisations, was accepted in substance, although the exact wording was not followed.

2.1. The following EP amendments have been accepted and integrated into the Council text (doc. 14089/02 ):

Amendment 1 - Art. 2, 1st indent This amendment states that data to be gathered and provided should be broken down by region, relying upon the NUTS classification.

Amendment 4 - Art. 5 paragraph 1 By this amendment the interval by which the Commission reports to the European Parliament and to the Council on the implementation of this Decision has been shortened, both for the initial report (now after four years since entry into force) and for the periodic reports (now every three years)

2.2. The following EP amendments was introduced with modifications of the suggested wording:

Amendment 2 - Article 2, indent 2 This amendment has been slightly reworded to better focus on the purpose of the intensified cooperation with the OECD and other international organisations, now stated as - with a view to warranting comparability of data and avoiding duplication of efforts". Also, the scope has been extended beyond patents and high-technology statistics, as requested in the European Parliament amendment.

3. New elements contained in the Common Position as compared with the Commission proposal

Recital 5 - general principles

This new recital restates which general principles are to govern Community statistics.

Recital 6 (formerly Recital 5) - scope of the cooperation with international organisations

This modified recital is a complement to Art 2, 2nd indent on cooperation with OECD and other international organisations.

Recital 10 (formerly Recital 9)

The need to take into account also the 6th Framework Programme for Research, to avoid overlap, has been added to this Recital.

Recital 11 (formerly Recital 10)

This recital welcomes explicitely the work of the Helsinki Group, adding that gender- specific data should be gathered to monitor progress in equal opportunity policy implementation. This is fully in line with the intention of amendment number 3 of the European Parliament, which the Commission was unable to accept, essentially for legal reasons. The recital maintains the importance of the Helsinki Group and underlines the intentions of continued cooperation with the group, which was also considered important by the Commission.

Recital 12 (formerly Recital 11)

This recital has been reworded according to the amendment to Art. 4 (committee procedure changed from management to regulatory)

This Article was reworded to clarify the nature and the purpose of the statistical data to be gathered and to indicate that use would be made of Member States resources for data collection, processing and development, if available.

Art. 4

This Article was amended to modify the committee procedure from management to regulatory.

4. Conclusion

The Common Position, which has been adopted by the Council, amends the draft Decision as recommended by the European Parliament and clarifies further the text of the Commission proposal. It should thus provide a sound basis for gathering statistical data which will be extremely useful in monitoring Community policies in the area of science, technology and innovation.

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