European Research Infrastructure Consortium: The Organizational and Legal Form of Research Infrastructures in the European Union

Abstract

Problems setting. The scientific work is devoted to the legal form of research infrastructures in the European Union the European Research Infrastructure Consortium. The ERIC Regulation facilitates the quicker establishment of European Research Infrastructures by saving time in avoiding the repetition of negotiations, project by project, to analyse and discuss the best legal form for such international research organisations, with related advantages and disadvantages and the time saved in avoiding discussions in each national parliament related to the approval of a needed international agreement in case the ERIC Regulation would not have existed. Analysis of recent researches and publications. The issue of the functioning of research infrastructures in the EU in the form of ERIC has been relevant in European scientific literature for the last decade. In particular, it is worth noting studies by Maria Moskovko, Arnljotur Astvaldsson and Olof Hallonsten, Carlo Rizzutto. In Ukraine, some issues of legal regulation and information support of research infrastructures were studied by Golovashchenko O.S., Lyubchych A.M., Mamayev I.O. There are no thorough studies of the legal status of research infrastructures in the national jurisprudence, which is due to the novelty of this topic in the law of Ukraine. Target of the research is to provide an overview of the dominant legal form of functioning of research infrastructures in the European Union, the history of its implementation, legal regulation, features of activity. Article’s main body. The European Research Infrastructure Consortium is a legal entity established by a decision of the European Commission. It has legal personality and full legal capacity recognized in all EU Member States. The internal structure of the European Research Infrastructures Consortium is defined in the statute by its founding countries. The ERIC legal framework can be used for new or existing research infrastructures, locally located or distributed research infrastructures. The European Research Infrastructures Consortium has been granted the status of an international organization within the EU legal system, but it is not an international organization according to the international law, as the decision to establish ERIC is taken by the European Commission. Much attention is paid to the EU legal framework that allowed the introduction of the European Research Infrastructure Consortium – Council Regulation (EC) No 723/2009 on the Community legal framework for the European Research Infrastructures Consortium. The article specifies the law that applies to the European Research Infrastructures Consortium. The activities of the European Research Infrastructures Consortium are governed by EU law, additionally by the national law of the Member State where it’s located, and the statute, internal documents of ERIC. The legislation of the host state is to be applied in resolving issues related to the implementation of the statutory tasks of ERIC. Conclusions and prospects for development. The implementation of the legal framework of the European Research Infrastructure Consortium has resulted in removing legislative obstacles that hindered the development of cooperation of EU Member States with partners from other countries in the field of science. It has also led to the establishment a common European legal framework for scientific activities and thus has resulted in the development of the European Research Area. Despite the fact that more than ten years have passed since the implementation of the legal regulation of the functioning of research infrastructures in the form of ERIC, it is still in its infancy and questions arise in the process of its application. However, the rapid establishment of research infrastructures in the form of ERIC shows that it is effective for the development of research infrastructures in Europe and the establishment of the European Research Area.