Spaanse minister onderzoek en innovatie ziet belang wetenschap ook in preventie natuurrampen (en)

The Minister for Science and Innovation, Cristina Garmendia (right), talking to the Director-General for Research, Montserrat Torné. EFE

“European science must commit itself to finding answers to prevent catastrophes such as in Haiti”, said minister.

The aim of the informal meeting of Ministers for Competitiveness, which began just after 9.30am today, is to put science at the top of the European agenda and highlight its role in economic recovery, an objective that will be embodied in the Donostia Declaration.

The Ministers of Science and Innovation from Belgium, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal and Norway are attending the meeting, which is being chaired by the Spanish minister, Cristina Gamendia.

The rest of the delegations are mainly being represented by deputy ministers. During the meetings held throughout the day, they will discuss the outstanding challenges around the launch of the European Research Area and discuss specific proposals to facilitate researchers' careers and guarantee their labour rights.

Additionally, they will discuss how to boost the social dimension of science, get research involved in the fight against poverty, and construct a science system that will operate in a co-ordinated and efficient way Europe-wide.

Professor Andre Sapir, from the Free University of Brussels; Carmen Becerril, representative of Acciona, and the malaria researcher and expert Pedro Alonso opened the plenary sessions that will conclude this afternoon.

Before the ministerial discussions got underway again in the final session, the Spanish Minister of Science and Innovation, Cristina Garmendia, described the talks as “fruitful” and “very enriching” with “commitment and great support” shown for the Donostia Declaration, a document that will define the role that European science has to play in economic recovery..

By way of example, she spoke about the electric vehicle, which will be the focus of discussion for industry ministers tomorrow. Garmendia said European knowledge and science must play their part in developing the 'green car'.

“Not taking a stance on this issue means taking the position that the green car can be developed without European knowledge”, warned the Spanish minister, saying that if new knowledge is required to develop the green car, then this knowledge must be European.

Garmendia confirmed that the plenary sessions also involved discussions about the social dimension of science, an issue that the Spanish Presidency wants to deal with in greater depth and more specifically.

The minister said the EU has the necessary capacity and scientific programmes to "make progress in the search for solutions through science" to disasters such as the earthquake in Haiti, insisting that prevention of such phenomena cannot depend on the technology of each individual country alone, but must instead come from "knowledge financed by public funds that is available to everyone”.

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