Research spending is dear to British hearts

By Aoife White - 30.06.2005 / 00:00 CET

British Prime Minister Tony Blair put research firmly on the EU agenda days before the UK was to take the chair of the Council of Ministers. Speaking to the European Parliament on June 23, he painted a bleak picture of the EU economy: “What type of social model is it ... that is allowing more science graduates to be produced by India than by Europe, and that, on any relative index of a modern economy – skills, research and development, patents, IT – is going down not up?”

Please log in to read this article:

Don't have a login yet?

Discover your benefits and register for free now! It only takes a minute.

Subscribe to European Voice for €15 per month

Transatlantic Economic Council faces uncertain future

ALLOWING the US to export 30,000 tonnes of poultry meat to the EU, 0.3% of its total consumption, may not seem much of a breakthrough in a transatlantic trade relationship worth €1.6 trillion. But if, as expected, in June the EU ends the ban it has maintained for 11 years because the US uses antimicrobial agents to eliminate salmonella, it will mark the first positive result of the Transatlantic Economic Council.

EPAs pose threat to ACP regional integration

Negotiations over Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA) with the European Commission have divided the African, Caribbean and Pacific countries that are the ostensible beneficiaries. The Commission has managed to secure the initialling of some agreements, but the majority of ACP states have refused to take such a step.