On 2 March at the Council of Competitiveness, EU ministers in charge of Internal Market, Industry and Research adopted measures on: researchers’ mobility; a review of the European Research Council and Intellectual property rights. The Council also debated the main objectives for establishing a new industrial policy.

1.    Promoting Researchers’ Mobility

Ministers considered how to improve researcher mobility. Member States, in accordance with their national legislation, should ensure appropriate social security coverage to all researchers, as well as address the issue of supplementary pensions for them, highlighted the ministers.

The council also identified the following areas for which specific action is required:

• Providing to individual researchers information on social security rights in case of trans-national mobility. Members States and the Commission should make it possible for interested individual mobile researchers to easily obtain information on their social security rights and obligations when moving.
• Finding solutions for social security needs of researchers. The Commission should identify any specific shortcomings at European level in relation to coordination of social security schemes between Member States which may hinder mobility or have a negative impact on the employment or on the career of researchers, and should therefore propose appropriate actions. Ministers also called on the Commission to present a roadmap for appropriate actions at European level to promote social security coverage to all researchers who are engaged in remunerated research activity.
• Addressing the issue of supplementary pensions for researchers. The Commission should examine the need for adequate pension provisions for researchers, taking into consideration their specific problems and needs as highly mobile workers, as well as the experiences acquired by supplementary pension providers to overcome mobility disincentives.
• Applying the common principles of flexicurity to research careers. Member States should combine the employment mobility inherent to the development of a scientific career with an adequate social protection for all researchers.
• Contributing to the 'new skills for new jobs' agenda. Ministers stressed the high potential of the professions linked to research and innovation for contributing in a significant manner to the future EU 2020 strategy and called upon the Commission to identify those aspects of the “European Partnership for Researchers” initiative” that could contribute to implementing and developing the “New Skills for New Jobs” agenda, and to propose specific actions in this respect by the end of 2010, including joint work of experts from the research, education and innovation, social security and employment areas.

 2.    Improving European Research Council’s structures

Ministers identified several areas of improvement of the European Research Council (ERC), i.e. the EU funding body set up to support investigator-driven frontier research.

Among other things, Ministers called on the Commission to carry out an independent evaluation in 2011 as a follow-up to the recommendations made the 2009 review of the ERC (the 2009 report is available for download here). Other factors considered in the conclusions concern the evaluation process, the integration of scientific and administrative functions, and the simplification of procedures.

Ministers concluded by inviting the Commission to support the ERC in its efforts to effectively promote the attractiveness of the ERC to retain as well as repatriate and recruit the world's most talented scientists and encourage the participation of scientists from the industrial or enterprise sector.

3.    Enforcement of intellectual property rights

Ministers asked the Commission to assess the advisability of introducing criminal penalties to combat counterfeiting and piracy. The Council insisted that the EU must reinforce the effectiveness of the protection of intellectual property rights to improve the fight against infringements and to protect consumers’ interests.

According to the Council, is the responsibility of Member States and the Commission to improve the working of the internal market in the area of protection of intellectual property.

Ministers also encouraged Member States to use the European network of administrative cooperation to allow rapid information-sharing and mutual assistance among authorities engaged in the field of enforcement of intellectual property rights.

Ministers highlighted the importance of public awareness in relation to the impact of counterfeiting and piracy on society and on the economy. In particular the council stressed the need of implementing effective awareness campaigns to show the potential danger of counterfeits and pirated products for health and safety, as well as for European competitiveness, creation, innovation and jobs. The campaigns should focus on specific target audiences such as consumers and young people.

4.    New Industrial Policy

The Council held an exchange of views on key objectives for a new industrial policy focusing on sustainable growth and employment.

In particular, Ministers stressed the importance of sustainability, eco-efficiency, as well as inclusion of innovative sectors, like the space, into the scope of the new policy.

The council underlined the need for a new networked and knowledge-triangle (i.e. the intersection between research, education and innovation) oriented approach in industrial policy, focusing on strengthening the knowledge base and sustainability, and stressing the necessity of a strong link between the new industrial policy and the upcoming European research and innovation plan (for more information, please visit: http://europa.eu/pol/rd/ ).

The new industrial policy should combine policies with concrete sectoral initiatives, agreed the Council. As a first step in this direction, Ministers invited the Commission to present an Action plan for clean and energy-efficient vehicles, including the growing role of fully electric cars and plug in hybrids.

In addition, Ministers highlighted that:

• The required industrial restructuring and transformation should be managed in a socially responsible way
• the "credit crunch"  should still be considered a serious problem, in particular for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), which are called to play a central role in the recovery process. Ministers acknowledged the importance of improving SMEs regulatory framework and the implementation of the Small Business Act, aimed at improving the overall approach to entrepreneurship and to promote SMEs' growth by helping them tackle the remaining problems which might hamper their development.
• the cohesion and the awareness of different starting positions in member states should be taken into consideration in the new industrial strategy.

For more information, please read the Council conclusions.