ECCE BRUSSELS BRIEF:  Regular updates: EU policies and actions on Research and development; Education; Environment, Energy; Information Technology; General Interest; Project Financing; News from the European Parliament, Update on Conferences   

The Italian Presidency plans to present a final draft of the EU constitution by the third week of November, ahead of a meeting on the issue set to take place on November 28 and 29 in Naples.

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

° Competitiveness - commitment to 3% of GDP investment in research: In a recent report (see Parliament section below) MEPs are critical of Council and of Member States for making little or no effort to increase their R&D expenditure. Some have, in fact, reduced theirs.

Parliament wants Member States and private investors to increase their R&D expenditure by 6% for public investment and 9% for private investment, to reach the average of 8% needed to achieve the target figure of 3% of GDP overall by 2010. Parliament also called for an increase in the European Seventh research framework programme budget to €30 billion for the whole period of the programme, to include allowing for enlargement to 25 and more Member States.

° 6FP - Results of First calls: Over 100,000 participants from over 50 countries responded to the first calls for proposals with nearly 12,000 projects.  The first calls had a budget of some Euro 5 billion of the €20 billion (Euro 17.5 billion + contributions from acceding and associated countries) EU 6th Research Framework Programme (FP6 2002-2006). The Commission has stated that Integrated Projects were the most popular of the new funding instruments; there was a relatively low level of industrial participation in Networks of Excellence.  Some proposals show that intended use of this instrument is not clear to all partners and the Commission will ensure greater understanding.  As high level of interest in the first call means it will only be possible to fund around one in six projects, the Commission plans in future to improve the focus of future calls, and make greater use of the two-step submission procedure. http://europa.eu.int/comm/research/fp6/calls_en.cfm    http://fp6.cordis.lu/fp6/calls.cfm            http://europa.eu.int/comm/research/fp6/firstcallresult_en.html

° Overview of Integrated Projects and Networks of Excellence short-listed after the first calls for proposals Table  Please note that this table does not include Information Society Technologies (Priority 2), which is implemented by the Information Society DG, or the parts of Priority 4 and 6.2 covered by the Energy and Transport DG.

° French research budget to rise by 3.9% in 2004: measures to boost RTD include raising total research budget to Euro 8.93 billion.  Euro 150 million (1.7% of by 2006.

° Evaluation of Finnish research confirms the country's place among the best in the research world: the report states that more than 70,000 people (2% of the active workforce) work in Finnish research and development (R&D).  Finland and Sweden possess the highest number of fully trained research graduates in the 25 to 34 age bracket among the EU Member States. The Academy of Finland's publication, 'Scientific Research in Finland: A Review of its Quality and Impact', may be found on  http://www.aka.fi/eng

° UK call for radical shake-up of  research funding: The Royal Society, UK's national academy of science, has called for a radical shake up of the way in which researchers and research departments receive public funding. In UK dual support system, individual researchers compete for project funding from the research councils, but funds for infrastructure and indirect costs come from the higher education funding council. Viewed as burdensome and outmoded the paper suggests that a possible solution is likely to involve transfers of funds between government departments or agencies. Sweden's research community calls for change in government policy Organisations (universities, the national research councils, the agency for innovation systems, and the royal academy of sciences) concerned that the quality of Swedish research is deteriorating call for increased competition among universities, better career opportunities for researchers, and enhanced cooperation between the business community, scientists, and public investors in research.  They propose that public research funding should rise to over three billion euro per year by the end of the decade (equivalent to roughly one per cent of Sweden's GDP).  The government believes that research in Sweden is in a healthy state.

° UK government launches initiative to help organisations benefit from the European Commission's Sixth Framework Programme (FP6) for research: http://fp6uk.ost.gov.uk

° How to establish closer co-operation between universities and enterprises: Following consultation on the Commission communication "The role of universities in the Europe of knowledge", new actions proposed include: pursuing or initiating necessary regulatory and administrative reforms, and support measures, to enable public research institutions to develop more effective links with industry, in particular SMEs.  Issues to address include establishment of incubators, science parks, seed funds and new types of public-private partnerships and the performance appraisal of researchers http://europa.eu.int/comm/research/era/3 pct/3pct-publicrtdindustry.html

THE ENVIRONMENT:  

THE ENVIRONMENT:  (D G Environment -  http://europa.eu.int/comm/dgs/environment/index_en.htm)

° A European Parliament Motion for a Resolution relating to Waste Framework Directive (75/442EEC) calls on the Commission to submit proposals for a directive on construction and demolition waste as well as for a directive on biodegradable waste, to come forward with a horizontal strategy on PVC waste, and to propose a revision of the directives on sewage sludge and on batteries, respectively, before the end of its term of office.

° The Finalised Text of a Directive on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) has now been published amending the ‘WEEE’ Directive  2002/96/EC  - (Full text of Document 3671/03   Suite of documents 3671/03

° Italian EU Presidency has published the text of the compromise draft of proposed directive on the quality and management of bathing water (as at 12th November 2003 )  Full text of Document 14364/03

° Commission publishes the first list of ships banned from EU ports A ban on entering EU ports has been imposed on ships which have been detained several times and are included on the black list published as part of the annual report of the Paris Memorandum of Understanding on Port State Control. The Commission is also publishing on the Internet the list of ships which will be banned if they are detained one more time on safety grounds http://europa.eu.int/comm/transport/maritime/safety/index_en.htm 44 The European Parliament has set up a 44-person Temporary Committee on Safety at Sea to look into the impact of disasters such as the Prestige tanker incident.

° A European Parliament Report on  follow-up report to Council Directive 75/442/EEC (Waste Framework Directive highlights differences in recycling rates for domestic refuse in various Member States: five Member States (Austria, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden) have achieved rates of over 40% while five Member States (France, Greece, Ireland, Italy and the United Kingdom) have achieved less than 10%.

° Collection and recycling of batteries to become obligatory: The European Commission has adopted a Proposal for a new Battery Directive under which all batteries placed on the EU market must be collected and recycled. The aim is to prevent spent batteries ending up in incinerators or landfills and to recover the various metals used.  Automotive and industrial batteries (which are mainly lead-acid and nickel-cadmium), are already collected effectively, because of the positive value of recycled lead and the availability of collection schemes of industrial nickel-cadmium batteries. This Directive will require Member States to set up national collection systems to allow consumers to return spent portable batteries free of charge. http://europa.eu.int/comm/environment/waste/batteries_index.htm

° The Common Position of Council of the European Union and of the Parliament regarding environmental liability  has now been published in all Community languages.  The Position was adopted on 18 September 2003 by the Council in order to adopt a Directive on environmental liability with regard to the prevention and remedying of environmental damage. Please refer to internet site http://europa.eu.int/comm/environment/liability/common_position.htm for further details.

° Proposed regulation on the Financial Instrument for the environment (LIFE) Full Text  Life III expires on 31 December 2004. In order to verify how effective Life III  has been the Regulation foresees that, by 30 September 2003, an evaluation is carried out on implementation. The Commission is putting forward a proposal extending the existing Regulation in order to continue the third phase until 31 December 2006.

° Environmental Crime: D G Environment has published new studies on Criminal Law in the EU and Candidate Countries              Criminal Penalties in EU Member States' Environmental Law - Study I (~1.3M)

·         Criminal Penalties in EU Member States' Environmental Law - Study II

Executive summary (~110K)    Full text of the study (~3.6M)

·         Criminal Penalties in Candidate Countries Environmental Law

             Executive summary (~250K)          Volume I: Consolidated report (~1.2M) 

             Volume II: Tables of Concordance per Country (~7.7M)

·         Organised Environmental Crime in Member States

            Executive summary (~120K)        Full text of the study (~11M)

• Organised Environmental Crime in a few Candidate Countries    Executive summary (~90K)

° Environmental cases: The following have been brought before the European Court of Justice and ordered to pay costs:

The Court has ordered that Spain pay €624,150 per year for every 1% of inshore Spanish bathing waters that continue to fail to meet the quality stardards set in the Bathing Water Directive.

the Commission sent Italy a letter of formal notice regarding its incorrect application of Directives 96/62/EC on ambient air quality assessment and management and 99/30/EC relating to limit values for sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and oxides of nitrogen, particulate matter and lead in ambient air

See also: http://europa.eu.int/comm/secretariat_general/sgb/droit_com/index_en.htm#infractions

EDUCATION:

Communication from the Commission "Education & Training 2010" A draft joint interim report  on implementation of the detailed work programme on the follow-up of the objectives of education and training systems in Europe concludes that it will be hard to achieve the five European benchmarks adopted by the Education Council in May 2003 by 2010. In particular the level of take-up of life-long learning is low; levels of failure at school and of social exclusion remain too high. There are also no signs of any substantial increase in overall investment (public or private) in human resources. {SEC(2003) 1250} Full Text  

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY:

Netd@ys Europe is European Commission initiative, organised by the Directorate-general for Education and Culture to promote the use of new technologies, especially the Internet, in education and culture.  Netdays were held this year on 17-23 November. Originally focused on schools, it has extended to universities and beyond focussing on how the new media can be used creatively in the day-to-day learning, teaching and discovering activities.  Further information may be found on: http://www.netdayseurope.org/

European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA) to be launched in January 2004 The agency, with a budget of 24 million euro over a five year period is intended to help the Commission and the Member States cooperate more effectively in their responses to network and information security problems such as computer crashes, information technology (IT) network failures, viruses and unauthorised interception of communications. ENISA will act as a centre of knowledge on network and information security issues and will promote a more coordinated response to the issue across Europe.

The agency will be temporarily based in Brussels until the EU's Heads of State and Government decide upon its permanent location. Provisional Council conclusions are found on:
http://ue.eu.int/pressData/en/trans/7796 3.pdf

Council set to adopt conclusions on the Role of eGovernment for Europe's Future: a set of pan-European eGovernment pilot projects is to be launched in 2004. Consideration will be given to development of possible interoperable European solutions for public and company authentication for eGovernment in the Internal Market.  For further details please see http://ue.eu.int/pressData/en/trans/7794 9.pdf

TRANSPORT:

Eurocode for traffic loads on bridges has been adopted:  EN 1991-2, Eurocode 1: Actions on structures – Part 2: Traffic loads on bridges September has been adopted. It supersedes the previous structural Eurocode ENV 1991-3:1995, which carried no obligation for transposition into national standards.

INFRASTRUCTURE FINANCING:

° European Investment Bank  

° EURO 30 million Global Loan to Hansabank operating in the Baltic States to finance small- and medium-scale projects promoted by SMEs and municipalities in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Final beneficiaries will be small- and medium-sized enterprises and private or public promoters of infrastructure and other eligible projects.

° The European Investment Bank (EIB) is providing 100 million euro to support entrepreneurs in Hungary, Slovenia and Romania. Sectors set to benefit include: innovation, research and development, and information and communications networks, plus health and education, social housing, energy, environmental protection, and general infrastructure.

Information on European Investment Bank loans is to be found on http://www.eib.org

° The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development  

° A Euro 40.5 million loan is being granted to Elektrostopanstvo na Makedonija (ESM), the state-owned power utility in FYR Macedonia, to help build a 150km transmission line that will cross into Bulgaria.  This is the first cross-border loan by EBRD in the power sector.

° The Bank is making its second loan to HAC, the state-owned Croatian Motorways Company to complete the Corridor 10 motorway in Croatia to the border with Serbia.  The Euro 45million loan is part of a Euro 90 million package: Euro 45 million is expected to be provided by the European Investment Bank.  The road is a key corridor connecting Croatia, Slovenia and Serbia and Montenegro with the rest of Europe. The project will promote regional integration and improve a key transit route between the regions of continental Europe and markets in Greece and Turkey.

In November the EBRD published its latest transition report which indicates that the economies of Central and Eastern Europe and the CIS will outpace the world economy in 2003, growing at 4.7%.  Growth in the oil-rich CIS countries may not be sustainable as it is based on high natural resources prices and it is noted that many EU accession countries now face a painful process of fiscal tightening if they want to maintain economic stability and have a reasonable chance of early eurozone entry. http://www.ebrd.org/pubs/index.htm

° Amendments are proposed to a European Parliament report on the Commission communication 'Towards a Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection' by MEPS Dagmar Roth-Behrendt and María Sornosa Martínez who point out that any scientific and taxonomic classification of soil will not be fully effective without monitoring increases in irrigation, reclassification of protected areas, urban development on wetlands, construction of infrastructure on fertile soil, etc. (Report ref below)

Some recent European Parliament reports of interest to the engineering profession are:-

° Report on the proposal for a Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection.  Rapporteur: Cristina Gutiérrez Cortines MEP  Doc : A5-0354/2003

° Report on the follow-up report on Council Directive 75/442EEC (Waste Framework Directive)) EP Rapporteur: Hans Blokland Doc Ref: : A5-0394/2003  

° Report on the Shipment of Waste: Report A5-0391/2003

° Report on the follow-up report on Council Directive 75/442/EEC (Waste Framework Directive) (COM(2003) 250 - 2003/2124(INI)) Rapporteur: Hans BLOKLAND  MEP (NL)

Details of the parliamentary session may be found on http://www.europarl.eu.int

° Integrated Lifetime Engineering of Buildings and Civil Infrastructures, Kuopio, Finland, 1^st to 3rd   December 2003

Symposium themes will be: 1. Ownership planning and management of investments, 2. Integrated life-cycle design, 3. Lifetime management systems  4.  Integration and design of management processes, 5.   Data for life-time design and management, 6. Norms, standards and guidelines, 7. Best practices in applying life-cycle design and management.  Registration and further information may be obtained from http://www.ril.fi/ILCDES2003 or by e-mail to kaisa.venalainen@ril.fi

° International Conference on e- Learning, Berlin, 3^rd-5^th December 2003

The 9^th international conference will address issues from ‘e-learning policies in practice’ to ‘future technologies for learning’. Workshops will include the use of GRID infrastructures to support future technology enhanced learning  http://www.online-educa.com/en/

° European conference on innovative technologies and materials for the protection of cultural heritage, Technical University of Athens, Greece,  16th and 17th December 2003.

The event seeks to create a platform for the integration of research, industry and education in the field of cultural heritage protection. Possible priorities in the field for the Seventh Framework Programme will also be discussed. Discussions will include integrated assessment of building materials' susceptibility to decay factors; non-destructive techniques for 'in-situ' damage assessment;  innovative techniques and materials for conservation interventions etc. E-mail: amoropul@central.ntua.gr  

° International Symposium on Eastern Mediterranean geology, Thessaloniki,  14^th-20^th April 2004

Thessaloniki, Greece is to be the venue for this conference on structural geology, stratigraphy and tectonics; petrology and geochemistry; volcanology and geothermy; large earthquakes, marine geology, remote sensing and natural hazards, geoarcheology, mineral resources and geology of the Balkan peninsula. http://geonet.geo.auth.gr/5thISEMG/index .htm

° Turkish Civil Engineering - 17^th Technical Congress and Exhibition, Istanbul, 15^th-17^th April 2004

The 17^th Technical Congress on Turkish Civil Engineering will be held at Yildiz Tehchnical University in Istanbul.  The congress and exhibition aim to present new advances and improvements in technical applications as well as problems and issues affecting the profession.  Student project competitions will ensure participation of future professionals and there will be international project presentations.  Further information from: http://www.imo.org.tr/teknikkongre17/english/english.htm

° Congress of Croatian Builders, Cavtat (by Dubrovnik), 22^nd - 24^th April 2004

The 4^th Congress of Croatian Builders is being prepared by the Croatian Society of Civil Engineers and will cover the themes of Croatia’s construction industry activities aimed at meeting EU accession requirements and implementation of national strategy for the construction of roads and motorways in Croatia.  For participation or paper submission contact: marija@grad.hr

° The Europe of Knowledge 2020: A vision for University-based Research and Innovation, Liege, Belgium,  22^nd - 28^th April 2004

The conference will discuss the “role of universities in the Europe of Knowledge” raised in the February 2003 Commission communication.  Further information on: rtd-consult-univ@cec.eu.int

° 10^th International conference on urban transport and the environment Dresden, Germany, 19th to 21st May 2004.

Latest advances in the field of transport will be discussed and research papers will be presented on: urban transport systems; transport sustainability; environmental aspects; transport demand management; air pollution and emissions control; information systems.  Participants will include engineers, scientists and managers working on planning and management of urban transportation systems and transport policy industry in universities, research organisations and government.  Further information is located on: http://www.wessex.ac.uk/conferences/2004/urbantransport04/index.html

° Intelligent transport systems Congress and exhibition ‘moving towards an integrated Europe’, Budapest, Hungary, 24^th to 26^th May 2004

The Conference will include discussions on e-safety in an enlarged EU, intelligent vehicle safety systems and ITS for multimodal services without borders.  Contributions are expected for 1^st December 2003.

° Annual European association of research managers and administrators (EARMA) conference, Bucharest, Romania, 24th to 26th June 2004,

‘Research management and administration in a changing world'. Discussions to include:  managing, valuing and reporting the products of R&D; the effective operation of networks;  intellectual property policies;
- strategic planning for international collaborations;  management of change in research: the challenge of the real world   http://www.earma2004.ro

° Monitoring the geological environment Segovia, Spain, from 5 to 7 July 2004

An international conference on the monitoring, simulation and remediation of the geological environment aims to attract a multi-disciplinary audience of researchers, practitioners and government employees interested in a variety of areas, including civil engineering, forest and agricultural engineering, geography, biology, ecology and hydrology.

For further information, please consult the following web address:
http://www.wessex.ac.uk/conferences/2004 /geoenvironment04/index.html

° Advantages for Real Estate and Construction Sector, Helsinki, 13^th - 16^th June 2005

The 11^th Joint CIB International symposium aims to put modern construction management and economics into a perspective of modern real estate and construction businesses and projects.  Topics of interest include the evolving sector, firms and their businesses, projects and processes, IT and construction processes, Foundations of our thinking and practice. The call for Papers will be available in October 2003.

Symposium web-site: www.ril.fi/cib2005  Tentative registration: kaisa.venalainen@ril.fi

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