§ Mr. ButlerTo ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will make a statement on EUREKA and United Kingdom involvement in and support for the initiative.
§ Mr. McLoughlinEUREKA is a pan-European initiative to encourage industrial collaboration in research and development; membership currently comprises the 12 EC countries, six EFTA countries, Turkey, Hungary and the EC Commission. The EUREKA ministerial conference which I attended in Paris on 24 June 1993 agreed that Russia should be admitted as soon as the last.appropriate technical elements have been completed.
Of the l93 new projects announced at the conference, 46 involved United Kingdom participants, a record number for the United Kingdom. In addition there were three new United Kingdom participations in previously announced projects. Thirty-one of the overall United Kingdom total went ahead without Government support demonstrating the awareness by United Kingdom organisations of the wider benefits of EUREKA. I congratulate all those United Kingdom organisations taking part in these and other EUREKA projects which demonstrate that the United Kingdom remains a strongly committed participant in the initiative.
On 26 May 1993, my right hon. Friend the President of the Board of Trade announced a refocusing of the Department's science and technology policy. As part of that refocusing, from I September 1993, the DTI will provide support for United Kingdom organisations to enable them to take part in feasibility studies and other consortium building activities to generate new EUREKA projects. From that date, firms' eligibility for support for the implementation phase of EUREKA projects will be confined to small and medium-sized enterprises of under 250 employees in accordance with the EC definition.