he 6th Joint Steering Committee meeting was hosted by the European Commission in Brussels on 26 and 27 June 2013. It was preceded by a series of productive preparatory meetings. The first meeting of the Steering Group of the Cooperation Arrangement between the JRC of the European Commission and the Brazilian Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation took place on 26 June. At the last Brazil-EU Summit in January 2013 the leaders had called for this Sixth Joint Steering Committee meeting to upgrade and more strategically focus bilateral cooperation in Science, Technology and Innovation.
The Brazilian delegation was led by Ambassador Benedicto Fonseca Filho, Director of the Department of Scientific and Technological Themes of the Ministry of External Relations, and it included representatives of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development, the Inter-ministerial Commission for the Resources of the Sea, academia and private sector. The European delegation was led by Deputy Director General for Research and Innovation of the European Commission, Rudolf Strohmeier, and was comprised of representatives of Directorate Generals for Research and Innovation, Agriculture, Fishery and Maritime Affairs, Information Technologies, Enterprise and the Joint Research Center.
Both delegations agreed to step up cooperation in the following key areas: marine research; food security, sustainable agriculture and bio-economy; energy; and nanotechnologies.
Specific Working Groups have been set up in the following areas with the mandate to engage in a stock taking exercise so as to capitalize on what exists, identify joint actions and timelines for implementation, as well as to monitor and report on implementation:
- Marine research cooperation, focusing on the different areas proposed in the preparatory documents.
- Food security, sustainable agriculture and bio-economy, focusing on traceability, certification and standards for agro-products livestock, agro-ecological areas, ecological intensification, low carbon agriculture and the Bio-economy Observatory.
- Energy, focusing on concentrated solar power, wind energy, smart grids and bioenergy, with a particular emphasis on a possible coordinated call on advanced biofuels
The meeting was also an occasion to inform each other of the many ongoing successful cooperative activities and to exchange ideas on possible future developments in areas such as health, ICT, transport and nuclear fusion.
In concluding the meeting, both delegations reaffirmed the importance of Science, Technology and Innovation cooperation in addressing shared economic, environmental and societal challenges within the context of the overall EU-Brazil relations.
Última Atualização: 03/07/2013