Parliament adopts resolution on Commission proposal for science statistics

Brussels, 03 July 2002

European Parliament adopted a legislative resolution on 2 July on a proposal for the production and development of Community statistics on science and technology.

The Commission proposal concerns the delivery of statistics by Member States on a regular basis, particularly statistics on research and development (R&D) activity in all sectors and on the funding of R&D activity. An amendment by Parliament recommends that the regional dimension be taken into account by producing whenever possible science and technology statistics based on NUTS (nomenclature of territorial units for statistics) classification.

Parliament claims that in order to monitor effectively the impact of science and technology on economic performance, it is necessary to have data which indicates what inputs and outputs are occurring region by region.

The statistics will give priority to the following domains:

- innovation - human resources devoted to science and technology - patents - high technology - gender statistics on science and technology.

Parliament has also amended the proposal in order to state that the Community will intensify cooperation with the OECD (organisation for economic cooperation and development) and other international organisations. MEPs believe that this is necessary in view of a division of responsibilities among international organisations. They justify their amendment with the statement 'it would be desirable for the Union to focus its efforts on innovation, human resources and gender statistics, and intensify cooperation with the OECD and other international organisations, if necessary adopting a 'tracking strategy' where patents and high technology are concerned.'

Parliament requests that the Commission presents a report on the statistics to the Parliament and Council every four years, instead of the five proposed by the Commission. 'If Parliament and the Council intend to exercise not just guidance, but also control, they should have the opportunity to assess work in progress,' argues Parliament.

For further information, please consult the following web address: http://www.europarl.eu.int

CORDIS RTD-NEWS/© European Communities, 2001