The achievement of the objectives set out in the Seventh Environment Action Programme (‘7th EAP’) therefore requires the full commitment of the Member States and the relevant Union institutions and the willingness to take responsibility for the delivery of the programme’s intended benefits.

Solid empirical data and statistics are absolutely essential in order to measure the progress and evaluate the efficiency of the Union’s policies and programmes, especially in the context of the Europe 2020 Strategy set out in the Commission Communication of 3 March 2010 entitled ‘Europe 2020: A strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth’ (Europe 2020).

Solid empirical data and statistics are absolutely essential in order to measure the progress and evaluate the efficiency of the Union’s policies and programmes, especially in the context of the Europe 2020 Strategy set out in the Commission Communication of 3 March 2010 entitled ‘Europe 2020: A strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth’ (Europe 2020).

Rejects the Council's argument that these cuts correspond to under-implemented or low-performing programmes, since they also affect programmes showing excellent implementation rates (e.g. the Lifelong Learning Programme and the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP) under Heading 1a and the Competitiveness and Employment objective under Heading 1b), whilst they do not touch areas experiencing under-implementation; points out that such criteria completely disregard the multiannual character of the EU's policies, and of cohesion policy in particular, characterised by a rising pro ...[+++]file of payments towards the end of the MFF;

Regrets that the Council departed substantially (all in all by EUR 2,15 billion), as regards commitments, from the financial programming figures, which result from a joint decision with Parliament at the beginning of the programming period, as well as that Council completely disregarded Parliament's priorities, as expressed in Parliament's mandate for the trilogue; recalls that Parliament's reading is based instead upon, and coherent with, benchmarks arising from that mandate;

Therefore the report recommends that transfer of innovation between participating countries, both product and process innovation, should be financed by the Leonardo programme on the same basis as a 'absolute' innovation, but subject to specific terms and conditions adapted to the particular need.