December EU Competitiveness Council (Research and Space part)

On 3 December 2013, the Council reached general approaches on a new generation of public and private partnerships (PPPs) in the field of research and innovation: five of them in the form of Joint Technology Initiatives (JTIs) and Joint Undertakings (JUs) - Bio-Based Industries, Clean Sky 2 (aeronautics), ECSEL (electronics), FCH 2 (fuel cells and hydrogen), IMI 2 (innovative medicines); the other four are proposed to be further developed as research programmes jointly undertaken by member states with the participation of the EU (art. 185 TFEU) – AAL 2 (active and assisted living), EDCTP 2 (clinical trials in African countries), EMPIR (metrology) and EUROSTARS 2 (support to SMEs). The Council also reached a political agreement on the amendment of JU ITER (Fusion4Energy). Ministers then had a political discussion on public sector innovation. Regarding the Space policy, the Council reached a general approach on Copernicus space programme 2014 – 2020. The Council also amended the European Research Infrastructures Consortium (ERIC) legal framework and adopted the Framework programme for research and innovation Horizon 2020. Detailed press release from the Council meeting is available here