members of the consortium, the EC has endorsed 

 EUREKA and participates in those of its projects having 

 a pre-competitive character, where there is a mutuality 

 of interests. 



National government planning for S&T is being 

 undertaken increasingly in conjunction with 

 complementary EC research programs, including joint 

 EC-member state consultations on shared 

 responsibilities for emerging technologies and fields of 

 research. Commission leadership in some fields 

 (environmental affairs, nuclear energy research, science 

 and engineering standards-setting, global warming, 

 computers and microelectronics, and large-scale 

 international projects) has already been conceded in 

 large part, at least tacitly, by the EC member countries. 

 The needs of advanced, internationally-competitive 

 R&D activity for access to capital and manpower, for 

 harmonized regulatory regimes, for open and consistent 

 procurement policies, and for barrier-free trade in both 

 products and material resources, all have tied science 

 and technology intimately to the success of the Single 



Market. As this symbiosis has received wider 

 recognition, S&T has become accepted increasingly in 

 Europe as central to the tightening weave of a federally 

 unified Community. 



Significant differences continue to exist among the 

 member states over the preferred, or even permissible, 

 extent of EC responsibility for basic research. Several 

 countries, particularly the smaller and the less advanced 

 ones, appear to welcome the EC role as a stimulus and 

 increment to their own inadequate research base. The 

 principal S&T-performing members have been, until 

 quite recently, ambivalent about or unambiguously 

 opposed to sharing control with the Commission at this 

 level of science. There are definite signals, however, that 

 growing demands on national resources for applied 

 technology investments are beginning to undermine this 

 last bulwark. Commission groundwork for a major role 

 in evaluating basic research needs and stimulating and 

 coordinating national programs is well-advanced, and an 

 extension of its policy and funding involvement is 

 virtually assured. 



A Collective EC Voice in International S&T Policies 



As authority and power in economic matters has 

 accrued to the EC Commission, and as its influence on 

 national S&T activities consequently has grown, the EC 

 role in regional and global S&T matters outside the 

 Community is expanding significantly. To note the more 

 important aspects of this role, the Commission 

 represents EC countries in GATT negotiations, 

 including topics that have S&T implications; it 

 coordinates the channeling of aid to Eastem Europe, 

 including technological assistance, on behalf of the 

 twenty-four wealthiest industrialized nations (the 

 "G-24", who also comprise the OECD); and it represents 

 the Community nations in international deliberations on 

 environmental pollution and global change issues. 



Non-EC countries in Europe are by now sensitized to 

 this aggregation of European S&T decision-making, and 

 the nations of the European Free Trade Association 

 (EFTA) and those of Central and Eastem Europe alike 

 acknowledge their future economic stake in having 

 equal access to EC advanced research, development and 

 human S&T resources in the Community. There are 

 signs that traditionally independent S&T bodies in 

 Europe (such as the European Science Foundation, the 

 European Molecular Biology Organization, the Centre 

 European pour la Recherche Nucleaire [CERN], and the 



European Space Agency) are moving to accommodate 

 varying degrees of shared authority and responsibilities 

 with the EC, following signals that their national funding 

 sources are acquiescing in a broader, deeper role for the 

 EC. 



For industrialized countries outside Europe, this 

 movement provides enormous incentive for a 

 reassessment of the traditionally overwhelming 

 emphasis on bilateral S&T relations. Policies for S&T 

 cooperation that continue to stress the predominance of 

 nation-nation arrangements, without corresponding 

 recognition of the developing overlay of strategic 

 planning and coordinating authority in Brussels, might 

 appear overly cautious. Yet the pace of change and the 

 final parameters of S&T responsibilities in Europe are 

 far from established. Correspondingly, the responses of 

 non-EC countries in realigning S&T relations and 

 cooperative activities must be measured and in keeping 

 with pragmatic realities in Europe. However, long-range 

 analysis points to a collective strengthening of European 

 S&T capabilities, increasingly targeted and led by EC 

 Commission policies and research programs, in close 

 coordination with EC national governments and relying 

 on their resources, manpower and facilities. 



