§ The Earl of LAUDERDALEasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they will summarise the reasons why they do not wish to see the Council of Ministers approve the European Community Commission's draft Resolution on Guidelines for a common Science and Technology Policy (R/1659/77).
§ Lord WINTERBOTTOMThe Government do not consider that Community R & D should facilitate the extension of Community involvement into new policy areas while the guidelines clearly envisage an extension and broadening of Community action. They include an extended list of research sectors and a set of "criteria", the satisfaction of any one of which is envisaged as a reason for activity at Community level. If these were put into practice, they could tend, in the Government's view, to lead either towards a significant increase in overall expenditure which would have only a tenuous relationship with agreed Community policies, or toward a proliferation of small and possibly ineffectual projects. The Government do not consider it appropriate to promote formal Council "approval" of the guidelines, though they recognise that they contain valuable material. The Government therefore consider that the appropriate course of action is to take note of the Commission's work.