The following is a Joint Statement released in conjunction with the EU-US
Summit in Washington, DC, December 5, 1997.
Signing of the EU-US
Science and Technology Agreement
The United States and the European Union signed the US-EU Science and
Technology Agreement on Friday, December 5, prior to the opening of the
US-EU Summit in Washington, DC. Acting Secretary of State Strobe Talbott
signed for the US, and President of the Council of the EU, Jacques Poos,
and Vice President of the European Commission, Sir Leon Brittan, signed
for the EU.
The US-EU S&T Agreement is a key instrument for advancing the New
Transatlantic Agenda (NTA) goal of expanding US-European scientific
cooperation across the Atlantic. In fact, the signing is the realization
of the commitment made by both sides in 1995 to conclude an agreement
by 1997 under the mandate obtained by Mrs. Edith Cresson, Commissioner
responsible for research, innovation, education, training, and youth,
and Stuart Eizenstat, currently the Under Secretary of State for Economic,
Business and Agricultural Affairs and former US Ambassador to the EU
in Brussels. It will serve as a broad framework for cooperation, enabling
some of our most distinguished scientists and best research institutions
to collaborate on a wider range of scientific endeavors and initiate new
joint programs. In addition, the agreement establishes a common ground
for handling the allocation and protection of intellectual property rights
(IPR) resulting from joint research.
Based on the principles of mutual benefit, reciprocal opportunities for
cooperation and equitable and fair treatment, the Agreement should help
researchers and institutions on both sides, including subsidiaries of
both European and American companies, to work more closely in a wide variety
of research areas. The Agreement will extend and strengthen the conduct
of cooperative activities between EU scientific institutions and a range
of US government agencies, including Commerce, Agriculture, Energy,
Transportation, the National Science Foundation (NSF), Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA), NASA, and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The Agreement
encourages cooperation in areas where the US and the EU are doing some
of the most advanced research in the world: environment, agriculture,
information and communications technologies, biomedicine, health, and
manufacturing processes. Finally, cooperation will take place on a reciprocal
basis in each party's research activities and could take the form of joint
research projects, task forces, and studies, as well as the joint organization
of scientific seminars, the training of scientists and technical experts,
the exchange or sharing of equipment and materials, visits and exchanges
of scientific personnel and information sharing.
The Agreement provides for the monitoring of activities and the deepening
of government-to-government cooperation through regular high-level meetings
of the Joint Consultative Group (JCG) , established in Article 6 of the
Agreement. The Agreement is valid for 5-year periods and may be extended
in additional 5-year increments by mutual consent of the parties.
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