The attached email is the Commission Services' follow-up to the February
meeting in Bruxelles.
Government in Lisbon are currently preparing to chair European Council
meetings during the period July-December 2007 [1].
The European Commission's "Communication on Scientific Information in the
Digital Age" is one of the agenda items.
Lisbon could have left it to sink, but instead the Commission tells us that
"scientific publishing will be a priority on the agenda of the Portuguese
Presidency".
So it looks as though Lisbon has decided that Portugal can persuade the
Council to come to a firm decision on scientific publishing by December 2007.
And that decision can only be in line with the "Declaration of the
Portuguese University Rectors" [2].
Which is good news for OA.
N.Miradon
[1]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidency_of_the_European_Union.
[2]
https://arl.org/lists/sparc-oaforum/Message/3492.html
P.S. We might perhaps like to suggest to Primeiro Ministro José Sócrates
Carvalho Pinto de Sousa, and to Minister for Science, Technology and Higher
Education José Mariano Gago, that the European Council simply adopts the
Declaration of the Portuguese University Rectors, replacing "Portuguese
Universities" by "Recipients of EU research grants" and replacing "Ministry
of Science, Technology and Higher Education" by "European Commission".
Some may be tempted to go further and advise the Ministers how to "improve"
the Rectors' Declaration. This temptation should be resisted.
........................................................
From: <RTD-SCIENTIFIC-PUBLICATION_at_ec.europa.eu>
Sent: Wednesday, May 16, 2007 2:42 PM
Subject: Scientific Publishing Conference, Brussels Feb 15- 16 - Proceedings
Dear participants,
On behalf of the scientific publishing team at DG Research we would like to
thank you for attending our conference "Scientific Publishing in the
European Research Area: Access, Dissemination and Preservation in the
Digitial Age" in Brussels on February 15-16. You attendance and
interventions ensured that this conference was a successful and stimulating
event.
The conference was attended by 445 participants from all concerned
stakeholder groups sending a very clear signal to the European Commission of
the crucial importance of the issues discussed over the 2 days in Brussels.
Following the adoption of the "Communication on Scientific Information in
the Digital Age: Access, Dissemination and Preservation", the Commission
will actively follow the debate within the European Parliament and the
Council, which we hope will be matched at national level. As Commissioner
Reding stated during her closing speech, scientific publishing will be a
priority on the agenda of the Portuguese Presidency.
The proceedings of the conference are now available on the conference
webpage
http://ec.europa.eu/research/science-society/page_en.cfm?id=3459
<
http://ec.europa.eu/research/science-society/page_en.cfm?id=3459>
In this context, I would like to take this opportunity to ask you whether
you would like your contact information to be added to our scientific
publishing mailing list which will keep you up to date on activities in the
area of scientific publishing. Please reply to this email within 10 days if
you do not wish to be added to the list. If we do not hear from you, we will
assume that you agree to be included on the mailing list.
Kind regards,
Received on Sun May 20 2007 - 22:24:11 BST