The European Commission (EC) has set out a range of measures intended to improve the career structure for researchers in Europe. One main aim is to stop the EU brain drain. In its press release, the commission emphasized the need to "prevent Europe's best scientists abandoning their careers in Europe in favour of more lucrative opportunities in the US and elsewhere."

The researcher brain drain is one of the EC's key concerns. It was highlighted in the European Report on Science and Technology Indicators 2003. This document addressed the central problem that 75% of researchers who spend time working in the United States choose to remain there rather than returning home.

Steps now proposed by the commission include developing: a "European Researcher's Charter"; a "code of conduct for the recruitment of researchers"; a common way of evaluating and recording researchers' skills, qualifications, and achievements; advanced training tools; access to adequate funding; and minimum social security benefits for PhD students.

In a statement, European Research Commissioner Philippe Busquin said: "Building on recent developments aimed at enhancing the mobility of researchers, such as the European Researcher's mobility portal, the [proposals] represent another important step forward in improving the EU's attractiveness for research talent across the world."

"These measures will help," Enric Banda, secretary general of the European Science Foundation, told The Scientist, "The Commission are doing their best… their efforts are remarkable, but the major responsibility is with member states." Banda feels the member states are making progress in developing more flexible and harmonized career structures and financial systems. But he criticized the slow pace of change, which he described as "on a geological timescale."

Banda emphasized that the problem is not just the brain drain, but also Europe's poor record in attracting skilled foreigners. "We do want to keep our talent, but we also have to import talent from other continents… the low numbers of foreign students in Europe as a whole is ridiculous."

Frederic Sgard, vice president of Euroscience, supports Banda's viewpoint. He told The Scientist, "The commission can only suggest initiatives for governments to apply. They cannot actually do very much except provide a few grants. Most of their ideas are pretty good." He added, "One definite thing the commission could do is improve the recognition of time students spend working abroad, which is not currently recognized well enough in career development if they return."

Like Banda, Sgard emphasized that a flow of talented scientists in both directions would make the brain drain much less of a problem. He said making European career structures more attractive to foreign scientists is a priority. "People tend to talk about the brain drain but I don't think it is the main issue. Unfortunately, science is not a priority for [most] governments in Europe... The commission is doing a good job trying to convince governments they have to tackle that."

Christian de Duve is one of six Nobel laureates who wrote a joint letter to EU leaders in 2002, criticizing the EU's science policy and demanding a doubling of research funds to stem the brain drain to the United States. He told The Scientist, "The situation in continental Europe is certainly not getting any better because the countries are spending less on research than the US and Japan." He feels that EU attempts to improve the situation suffer "paralysis by the excessive bureaucratic rules in the commission, and another factor is that individual member states are not willing to abandon some of their prerogatives to the commission."

And de Duve strongly supports efforts to set up a European research council with significant spending power. He stressed the need for the EU to "establish a central [body] that would allocate resources as they do in the US."