Council of The European Union.Brussels.6 December 2011. UNDERLINES the need to a) deliver added value at the European and Member States level through the partnering approach; b) improve conditions allowing and encouraging all interested Member States and other stakeholders to participate in different forms of partnering, while maintaining their voluntary nature and taking account of national approaches to research funding; c) increase and maintain the commitment and active participation of all partners including the private sector, especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), in publicprivate partnerships; d) develop synergies and complementarities between Horizon 2020 and the Common Strategic Framework for Cohesion Policy when developing partnering activities, while recognising that these instruments have different purposes; e) reduce the administrative burden for all participants in partnering instruments and pursue the effort of simplification of rules and procedures.
EMPHASISES the need to create a transparent and accessible overall landscape of programmes and instruments for all parties involved. To this end, NOTES the need for rationalisation, including mergers when deemed appropriate, to avoid unnecessary duplication and overlapping, and LOOKS FORWARD to discussing this issue further in the context of, amongst others, the Commission proposals for Horizon 2020 and the ERA Framework.
As regards the Public-Public Partnerships (P2Ps)
EMPHASISES the need to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of existing partnering instruments and TAKES NOTE of the Commission's intention to merge existing instruments, such as ERA-NETs and ERA-NET Plus, to form a single, more flexible and ERA-NET-like instrument and LOOKS FORWARD to discussing this aspect in the context of Horizon 2020.
EMPHASISES the nature of Joint Programming as a Member States led voluntary process and its significant potential for R&I in Europe and contribution to address major societal challenges; CALLS for considering synergies between JPIs and Framework Programme instruments, in particular for the use of its P2P instruments, where the area being addressed by a JPI fits with Horizon 2020 priorities; ENCOURAGES the Member States participating in JPIs to make best use of the Voluntary Guidelines on Framework Conditions for Joint Programming and RECALLS the need to regularly review these guidelines based on the experience of the JPIs with the aim to improve their applicability.
ACKNOWLEDGES that, in order to ensure strong, long-term partnerships, questions related to issues such as IP management, funding and improvement of cross-border cooperation and knowledge circulation need to be addressed also in the context of the development of the ERA Framework and that this process must fully recognise the voluntary nature of individual partnerships and the need to respect national competence.
3133rd COMPETITIVENESS (Internal Market, Industry, Research and Space)
