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Signing of the U.S.-EU Science and Technology Agreement Joint Statement released in conjunction with the U.S.-EU Summit Washington, DC, December 5, 1997

The United States and the European Union signed the U.S.-EU Science and Technology Agreement on Friday, December 5, prior to the opening of the U.S.-EU Summit in Washington, DC. Acting Secretary of State Strobe Talbott signed for the U.S., and President of the Council of the EU, Jacques Poos, and Vice President of the European Commission, Sir Leon Brittan, signed for the EU.

The U.S.-EU S&T Agreement is a key instrument for advancing the New Transatlantic Agenda (NTA) goal of expanding U.S.-European scientific cooperation across the Atlantic. In fact, the signing is the realization of the commitment made by both sides in 1995 to conclude an agreement by 1997 under the mandate obtained by Mrs. Edith Cresson, Commissioner responsible for research, innovation, education, training, and youth, and Stuart Eizenstat, currently the Under Secretary of State for Economic, Business and Agricultural Affairs and former U.S. Ambassador to the EU in Brussels. It will serve as a broad framework for cooperation, enabling some of our most distinguished scientists and best research institutions to collaborate on a wider range of scientific endeavors and initiate new joint programs. In addition, the agreement establishes a common ground for handling the allocation and protection of intellectual property rights (IPR) resulting from joint research.

Based on the principles of mutual benefit, reciprocal opportunities for cooperation and equitable and fair treatment, the Agreement should help researchers and institutions on both sides, including subsidiaries of both European and American companies, to work more closely in a wide variety of research areas. The Agreement will extend and strengthen the conduct of cooperative activities between EU scientific institutions and a range of U.S. government agencies, including Commerce, Agriculture, Energy, Transportation, the National Science Foundation (NSF), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), NASA, and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The Agreement encourages cooperation in areas where the U.S. and the EU are doing some of the most advanced research in the world: environment, agriculture, information and communications technologies, biomedicine, health, and manufacturing processes. Finally, cooperation will take place on a reciprocal basis in each party's research activities and could take the form of joint research projects, task forces, and studies, as well as the joint organization of scientific seminars, the training of scientists and technical experts, the exchange or sharing of equipment and materials, visits and exchanges of scientific personnel and information sharing.

The Agreement provides for the monitoring of activities and the deepening of government-to-government cooperation through regular high-level meetings of the Joint Consultative Group (JCG) , established in Article 6 of the Agreement. The Agreement is valid for 5-year periods and may be extended in additional 5-year increments by mutual consent of the parties.

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