EU leaders unanimous: research is vital for Lisbon relaunch

By describing research as a “vital strand” of the Lisbon relaunch and knowledge and innovation as “engines of sustainable growth”, the Spring Council has kept R&D high up the EU’s agenda.

“It is important to develop research, education and all forms of innovation insofar as they make it possible to turn knowledge into an added value and create more and better jobs,” state the Council conclusions (22-23 March 2005).  

The overall objective of spending 3 per cent of member state’s GDP on R&D has been maintained. However, specific individual intermediate goals on how to reach the 3 per cent will be set for each member state. 

The European Investment Bank (EIB) is invited to extend its ‘structured finance facility‘ (total reserve of 750 million euros) to R&D projects and, together with the Commission, examine new methods to use Community funds as levers for EIB loans for science and research.

EU leaders also decided to back the creation of a ‘European research council’ to support cutting-edge and basic research. 

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