European Research Area (ERA): MEPs present ‘Maastricht for Research’ Manifesto

On 16 October, two members of the European Parliament, Amalia Sartori, Chair of the ITRE Committee and Luigi Berlinguer (Former Italian Minister for Research), presented a Manifesto entitled “European Research Area. A Maastricht for Research” to a number of stakeholders including EUA at a launch event at the European Parliament in Brussels.

Whilst acknowledging the actions that have and are being taken to overcome the current barriers to completing the ERA, the document calls for more binding instruments and proposes defining an “ERA Framework directive”.

EUA was invited at the event to provide some initial feedback to the proposed manifesto. EUA’s Lidia Borrell-Damian, who was representing EUA, highlighted that EUA welcomed the interest of the European Parliament and hopes this can be considered as an important point of dialogue between stakeholders and the EU Parliament, thus reinforcing the dialogue that already exists between the main stakeholders in the sector and the European Commission (through the Memoranda of Understanding or Joint Statements). More...