PURPOSE: to renew the Agreement for scientific and
technological cooperation between the European Community and
Brazil.
PROPOSED ACT: Council Decision.
ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: Council may adopt the
act only if Parliament has given its consent to the
act.
BACKGROUND: the Agreement
for scientific and technological cooperation between the
European Community and Brazil entered into force on 7 August
2007.
The Agreement provides that it shall initially
be valid for a period of five years and may be renewed by agreement
between the Parties after evaluation during the penultimate year of
each subsequent renewal period.
The Agreement was last
renewed in 2012 and remains in force until 7 August 2017,
unless the Parties renew it for the next five-year
period.
Since the Agreement was last renewed, Brazil has made
significant advances in its science, technology and innovation
(STI) policy, which has contributed to the institutional
strengthening of the STI system.
Brazil remains at the forefront of research in the
field of agriculture, as well as in tropical and infectious
diseases. It is also a world-class player in the fields of
information and communication technologies, nanotechnologies and
energy and it hosts some of Latin Americas top universities.
These research areas are of interest to the European
Union.
The links between Brazil and the EU in science,
technology and innovation have been growing through intense
cooperation at EU and Member State level.
Cooperation between the EU and the Brazilian research
community led, among other results, to the development of a new
drug for Chagas disease (already registered with the Food and Drug
Administration to start clinical testing) and to the development of
a new biomass pre-treatment process for advanced bioethanol
(allowing the set-up of the first commercial advanced bioethanol
plant in Europe).
It is, therefore, in the EUs interest to renew
the Agreement for scientific and technological cooperation between
the European Community and Brazil for a new period of five
years.
This is the purpose of this proposal.
CONTENT: with this proposal for a decision, it is
planned to call on the Council to renew the Agreement on
cooperation in the field of science and technology between the
European Community and Brazil for a further period of 5
years.
The content of the renewed Agreement is identical to
that of the current Agreement.
Cooperation would be maintained for the period from 8
August 2017 to 7 August 2022.
BUDGETARY IMPACT: the implementation of the Agreement
entails a financial envelope of EUR 345 000 from 2017 to
2022 for expenditure on human and administrative
resources.