Closing Address

Abstract

Before I say the last few words of thanks and acknowledgement for the efforts which have gone into making this, a most succesful seminar, I should just add one or two words more on the subject just mentioned by Dr. Finzi — the interruption which action in this field suffers at the present time. There is nothing that can be said about that situation which is good; and I will not pretend that there is. It has had unfortunately consequences which Mr. Vilain and others have referred to in respect of the interruption in the continuation of useful actions, but I hope that these will remedied in the not too distant future. The point I should make is that the difficulty which you see at the present time is certainly not confined only to the field of reactor safety. I suppose you are very well aware there is a wide range of Community areas of research in which the Commission has made proposals for either new or renewed programmes where the same generic budget problem has prevented a prompt decision by Ministers and by the Parliament. I think it is worth pointing out that the particular problem which has given rise to this situation is not something which is likely to happen every year, year in year out. The problem is that we have got a naturally expanding level of activity in the Community. The Community is still quite young after all. It is still growing. It is still learning the things which it is useful to do and the things which is not useful to do, and most of the lessons show that in any joint operation you discover many new possibilities from working with people. So the tendency for the range of the activity of the Community is to grow. There is also of course a tendency towards inflation and Parkinsonian growth, but there is a genuine and well founded justification for a tendency to growth. There is however a fixed threshold built into the legal financial structure and as the cost rises when you come to the threshold: this we have just done with the result that these is a discontinuity in our affairs at this point. We would be foolish to ignore the fact there is a serious hiatus and there may still be trouble before we come out of it: but we are making progress I think it is also worth recognizing that it is the consequence of a healthy tendency to growth (apart from the over vigorous growth of plant crops of course) and I hope that the problem is something which we will pass through and out into the sunshine on the other side, before too long.