Polish presidency comes “at a special time” for the research community

Poland’s EU presidency running from tomorrow until the end of the year will be bookended by discussions on the future EU funding programme for research and innovation.

“The presidency comes at a special time for the research community,” Małgorzata Misiewicz, Scientific Counsellor at Poland’s permanent representation to the EU, told Science|Business an interview in the representation’s new Brussels headquarters near the Commission’s Berlaymont building.

When research ministers meet for the first time in July they will discuss the different ideas being explored, while by their final meeting on December 6 the ministers should have the European Commission’s legislative proposal in their hands.

Poland aims to focus the July discussions on making the framework programme more accessible to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), small research teams and those member states or regions where participation is currently low, and in particular the 12 countries that have joined the EU since 1 May 2004, a list that includes Poland.

The Polish presidency is also aiming to keep things moving on the Single Patent. As the Hungarian presidency drew to a close, it secured an agreement among member states on two draft regulations implementing enhanced cooperation in the area of unitary patent protection - one dealing with how patent holders obtain unitary patent protection, the other sets out the rules for language translation.

“This is the final, critical contribution of the Hungarian Presidency to achieving a simpler, cheaper and more robust patent system in the EU that eluded us for decades,” Hungary’s Minister Zoltán Cséfalvay, chairman of the Competitiveness Council, said as the Hungarian Presidency bowed out. “We went further than expected in a mere six months – from agreement on the enhanced cooperation to closing the first step in the legislative procedure.”

The aim now is for a final political agreement to be reached on the patent reform by the end of the year. “We are ready to continue the work and advance matters as much as possible,” the Polish presidency said.

Another priority for the Polish presidency is to boost links between the EU’s cohesion policy and the next research-funding programme, Horizon 2020 – the Framework Programme for Research and Innovation. “We want to see more synergies between the structural funds and the framework programme,” Misiewicz said. Some of the synergies will be at an administrative level, such as having a common list of eligible costs, while others will include urging member states to dedicate structural funds to research activities.

These goals tie in with Research Commissioner Maire Geoghegan-Quinn’s wish for closer alignment between structural funds spent on research infrastructures and the overall research and innovation programme. The Polish presidency will also organise several events dedicated to this theme, including the ‘European integration process in the new regional and global settings’ conference on 19-20 October in Warsaw.

The Polish presidency’s research and innovation goals fall within its overall priority of ‘European integration as the source of growth’. The other two other two basic priorities are a ‘Secure Europe’ and a ‘Europe benefiting from openness’. As such, development of the European Research Area (ERA), features high on the agenda.

On July 20, the day before the informal Competitiveness Council, research ministers will have an ERA ministerial conference where they will discuss three main topics:

• the modernisation of universities, on which the Commission will publish a communication in September;
• the mobility of researchers, including the international mobility of researchers, covering topics such as social security and pensions, and the inter-sectoral mobility of researchers, such as researchers moving between companies and research institutes;
• the involvement of industry, encouraging cooperation between industry and universities, for example the initiatives of the European Institute of Technology and Innovation (EIT). “The meeting will focus on delivering better value for universities, mobility and innovation,” Misiewicz said.

While the member state that holds the rotating EU presidency does not have more decision-making power than other member states, it does direct discussions as it organises and chairs all meetings and is responsible for finding compromises capable of resolving difficulties. “In six months it’s hard to make a difference, but we can underline topics that are important for achieving a balanced ERA,” Misiewicz said.

The research ministers will meet three times during the Polish presidency, in July, September and December. The September 30 Competitiveness Council, which will come just after the Commission will have presented its legislative proposal on the EU’s future cohesion policy and structural funds, will focus on European Innovation Partnerships and Joint Programming.

The partnerships, announced in the Commission’s Innovation Union at the end of 2010, are a new model for public-private collaboration that will home in on major problems such as climate change, the demographic time bomb and ensuring sustainable energy supplies. While a pilot project on healthy ageing, aiming to extend the healthy life span of Europe’s citizens, has already been launched, there remain a lot of question marks as to what the innovation partnerships really are and how they differ from joint programming. “The meeting will seek to clarify confusion,” said Misiewicz, who noted that the partnerships were top-down initiatives while joint programming was bottom-up.