Maintaining R&D investment and strengthening the "knowledge triangle" of education, research and innovation are key to the successful completion of the ERA, ministers said.
The European Commission first proposed the creation of an ERA in 2000. Since then, it has put forward several texts to address the main hurdles faced by researchers in Europe. Two key challenges are attracting capable scientists from outside the Union and facilitating their free movement within the EU.
"It is indeed crucial to agree together what kind of ERA we want to achieve in fifteen to twenty years from now. This adoption is a strong political message [which shows that] we have faith in the future: we know confidence is the Holy Grail of the current situation," said EU Science and Research Commissioner Janez Potočnik after the ministers' meeting.
Addressing fears that research budgets may be cut during the current crisis, the commissioner said investing in R&D and innovation was "not a supplementary burden but an indispensable investment in future jobs and growth".
Mirroring the Commission's economic recovery plan presented last month, Potočnik pointed out that "we need to restructure our economies on a medium and long-term perspective, to turn them into green economies and knowledge-based economies".
Ministers also agreed on a procedure for joint research programmes, aimed at better responding to major societal challenges such as the food crisis and its consequences for agriculture, as well as how to manage our ecosystem, climate change or the ageing of the European population.
For a start, research on Alzheimer's and neurodegenerative diseases could be a "promising pilot venture", said French Minister for Higher Education and Research Valérie Pécresse.
Within this programme, member states would be "in the driving seat", she said, while the Commission would "serve as a 'co-pilot'" and "make sure that there is enough fuel in the tank".
