5.12.2000 Official Journal of the European Communities L 304/7 COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 2659/2000 of 29 November 2000 on the application of Article 81(3) of the Treaty to categories of research and development agreements (Text with EEA relevance) THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, Having regard to Council Regulation (EEC) No 2821/71 of 20 December 1971 on application of Article 85(3) of the Treaty to categories of agreements, decisions and concerted practices ('), as last amended by the Act of Accession of Austria, Finland and Sweden, and in particular Article 1(1)(b) thereof, Having published a draft of this Regulation (3), Having consulted the Advisory Committee on Restrictive Prac- tices and Dominant Positions, Whereas: (1) Regulation (EEC) No 2821/71 empowers the Commis- sion to apply Article 81(3) (formerly Article 85(3)) of the Treaty by regulation to certain categories of agree- ments, decisions and concerted practices falling within the scope of Article 81(1) which have as their object the research and development of products or processes up to the stage of industrial application, and exploitation of the results, including provisions regarding intellectual property rights. (2)  Article 163(2) of the Treaty calls upon the Community to encourage undertakings, including small and medium-sized undertakings, in their research and tech- nological development activities of high quality, and to support their efforts to cooperate with one another. Pursuant to Council Decision 1999/65/EC of 22 December 1998 concerning the rules for the participa- tion of undertakings, research centres and universities and for the dissemination of research results for the implementation of the fifth framework programme of the European Community (1998-2002) (}) and Commis- sion Regulation (EC) No 996/1999 (¥} on the imple- mentation of Decision 1999/65/EC, indirect research and technological development (RTD) actions supported under the fifth framework programme of the Community are required to be carried out cooperatively. () O] () o] () O] () o 4 L 285, 29.12.1971, p. 46. C 118, 27.4.2000, p. 3. L 26, 1.2.1999, p. 46. L 122, 12.5.1999, p. 9. () ( ( ’) ) Agreements on the joint execution of research work or the joint development of the results of the research, up to but not including the stage of industrial application, generally do not fall within the scope of Article 81(1) of the Treaty. In certain circumstances, however, such as where the parties agree not to carry out other research and development in the same field, thereby forgoing the opportunity of gaining competitive advantages over the other parties, such agreements may fall within Article 81(1) and should therefore be included within the scope of this Regulation. Pursuant to Regulation (EEC) No 2821/71, the Commis- sion has, in particular, adopted Regulation (EEC) No 418/85 of 19 December 1984 on the application of Article 85(3) of the Treaty to categories of research and development agreements (°), as last amended by Regula- tion (EC) No 2236/97 (). Regulation (EEC) No 418/85 expires on 31 December 2000. A new regulation should meet the two requirements of ensuring effective protection of competition and providing adequate legal security for undertakings. The pursuit of these objectives should take account of the need to simplify administrative supervision and the legis- lative framework to as great an extent possible. Below a certain level of market power it can, for the application of Article 81(3), in general be presumed that the positive effects of research and development agreements will outweigh any negative effects on competition. Regulation (EEC) No 2821/71 requires the exempting regulation of the Commission to define the categories of agreements, decisions and concerted practices to which it applies, to specify the restrictions or clauses which may, or may not, appear in the agreements, decisions and concerted practices, and to specify the clauses which must be contained in the agreements, decisions and concerted practices or the other conditions which must be satisfied. It is appropriate to move away from the approach of listing exempted clauses and to place greater emphasis on defining the categories of agreements which are exempted up to a certain level of market power and on specifying the restrictions or clauses which are not to be 53, 22.2.1985, p. 5. 0] L 0] L 306, 11.11.1997, p. 12.