EU plans to double R&D spend

The EU Commission is planning to more than double spending on research and development (R&D) in its next framework programme, according to a senior Brussels civil servant.

The EU Commission is planning to more than double spending on research and development (R&D) in its next framework programme, according to a senior Brussels civil servant.

Mr Achilleas Mitsos, the Commission's director general for science, research and development, said that the Commission recently agreed the budget for supporting R&D would be gradually increased from €5.5 billion to €12.5 billion.

Mr Mitsos told a press conference in Dublin Castle yesterday that the increase would apply over the period of the EU's next framework programme, which runs from 2007 to 2013, once it wins the approval of the European Parliament and Council of Ministers.

The director general was speaking after a conference on Europe's Search for Excellence in Basic Research, organised by his directorate and the Irish Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment.

Representatives from 27 countries, which included EU members and the eastern European states due to join in May, attended the gathering. It was organised to agree an EU-wide approach to achieve the goal set out two years ago in the Lisbon Agenda - for Europe to become "the most-competitive knowledge-based economy in the world by 2010".

Speaking to reporters afterwards, the Tánaiste, Ms Harney, said she was happy with the Commission's proposal. However, she stressed that one of the real issues for the EU was getting the private sector more involved in R&D.