Green Paper calls for EU researchers to be given greater mobility
The European research commissioner has argued for the rules governing the mobility of researchers in the European Union to be simplified to help the EU achieve the growth objectives it has set itself.
The European research commissioner has argued for the rules governing the mobility of researchers in the European Union to be simplified to help the EU achieve the growth objectives it has set itself.
Janez Potocnik suggested the creation of European social security provision for researchers, to encourage their mobility between countries and research institutions.
'We want researchers to be free to work wherever they can in the EU, free from worries that their careers can be penalised rather than rewarded when they move around,' said the Slovenian commissioner.
The Commission's Green Paper on the future of the European Research Area puts forward a genuine 'single labour market' for research, one of the ideas launched in 2000 during the EU summit in Lisbon.
But the Commission observes that the mobility of researchers in Europe is often discouraged by national regulations. For example, in terms of social security and pension systems, some countries also prevent researchers in the public sector from working part time in the private sector.
Potocnik would also like to see greater freedom for universities. 'We want universities and other research organisations to have more freedom to decide who to recruit, who to work with, and what subjects to focus on.'
He stressed that 'it is not about creating a single European research policy, run centrally by the Commission'. Rather it is about giving the EU a fifth freedom: the free movement of knowledge. Currently, the national and sectional fragmentation of research in Europe currently leads to 'huge cost', he added.
In addition to improved mobility for researchers between countries, institutions and sectors, the initiative also covers other aspects, such as setting up research infrastructures, strengthening public-private partnerships able to mobilise a 'critical mass' of human and financial resources, and setting public research priorities programmed on a European-wide scale.
Public consultation on the Green Paper will be open until August and the Commission will make concrete proposals at the beginning of 2008. However, it acknowledges that it will probably be 2020 before the European Research Area is completely finished.