PURPOSE: to review the rules on the cancellation of
commitments under the research programme of the Research Fund for
Coal and Steel (RFCS) and the rules on amounts recovered under the
research programme of the Research Fund for Coal and Steel
(RFCS).
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 Treaty establishing the European Coal
and Steel Community (ECSC) expired on 23 July 2002.
The Protocol annexed to the Treaty establishing the
European Community, transferred the assets and liabilities of the
ECSC to the European Community and allocated the net worth of these
assets to research in the sectors related to coal and steel
industry. The Protocol also assigned the revenue from these assets
for research, outside the research framework programme, in the
sectors related to the coal and steel industry.
The revenues assigned to the funding of research
projects for Coal and Steel are decreasing at a substantial rate
from one year to the other. The budgetary envelope of the RFCS
programme has decreased from EUR 46 million in 2017 based on 2015
ECSC in liquidation’s revenues to EUR 27 million in
2018 based on 2016 ECSC in liquidation’s revenues and the
amount is expected to be even lower for 2019 (between EUR 14
million and EUR 18 million).
In order to maintain an acceptable level of funding
for research projects in the coal and steel sector for a certain
period, pending a change in monetary policy and an increase in
asset returns on public bond markets, the Commission suggests the
recycling of unused appropriations put at the disposal of
the research programme of the Research Fund for Coal and Steel
(RFCS).
CONTENT: the proposed revision is limited to two
paragraphs of Article 4 of the Council
Decision 2003/76/EC and aims at applying the same treatment
(automatic carry-over to the next year) for both categories of
unused funds: appropriations not committed at year-end and
cancellations of commitments.
According to the Commission, the adoption of the
proposed revision:
- will authorise the recycling of all the
de-commitments (including the amounts
recovered) made in the RFCS research programme since 2003 which
have been returned to the assets of the ECSC in liquidation and
represent a possible complementary funding for the RFCS research
programme of EUR 40.3 million;
- will provide additional funding of nearly EUR 5
million per year (average flow of annual de-commitments over the
three past years in RFCS research programme).
Concretely, the rapid adoption of the proposal by the
first Semester of 2018 would allow the commission to top up the
expected envelope of the RFCS programme for 2018 (EUR 27 million)
to reach an amount of EUR 40 million for the next annual call for
proposals.