The Presidency of the Council of the European Union rotates every six months amongst the 25 EU Member States.  The UK held the Presidency from 1st July to 31st December 2005 and aimed to deliver progress across the EU agenda by running an effective, impartial and business-like Presidency.  We worked closely with Luxembourg (The UK/Luxembourg joint work programme for 2005), who held the Presidency before us, and Austria, who currently hold the Presidency, to ensure continuity in addressing the key challenges that face Europe today.  Further details of the Austrian Presidency is available on the European Commission’s CORDIS website.

Further general information on the UK’s Presidency of the EU is available on the Foreign Office website. (This is still available for reference but is no longer being updated).

DTI’s overall aim for the Presidency of the Council of the European Union was to promote economic reform by increasing productivity and employment.  The mid-term review of the Lisbon agenda, which aims to make Europe the most competitive knowledge-based economy in the world by 2010, reinforced the message that research, development and innovation are central to the Lisbon strategy.  The DTI Presidency priority which covers research was “Boosting our economies’ potential for research and innovation”.

Further information on DTI’s priorities for the UK Presidency is available on the DTI website. (This is still available for reference but is no longer being updated).

Under the UK’s EU Presidency, the research and innovation agenda was dominated by negotiations focusing on agreeing a 7th Framework Programme (FP7) which is aligned to the needs of its users and which is underpinned by simplified administrative procedures.  Further information on FP7.

R&D PRESIDENCY EVENTS

NEST (New and Emerging Science and Technologies) conference on 20-21 September, London 

CREST UK - Manchester, October 2005

Conference on the Coordination of National Research Programmes - Manchester, October 2005

EU Research Infrastructures Conference : 6 - 7 December 2005 - East Midlands Conference Centre, Nottingham

OTHER UK PRESIDENCY EVENTS

Further information on the UK’s research and innovation priorities for the EU Presidency and details of research Presidency events are available on the UK pages of CORDIS, the EU's Research and Technological Development information service website.