6. 10. 77 Official Journal of the European Communities No L 255/25 COUNCIL DECISION of 27 September 1977 adopting a series of studies in support of the use of informatics (77/616/EEC) THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community, and in particular Article 235 thereof, Having regard to the proposal from the Commission, Having regard to the opinion of the European Parlia- ment (1), Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee (?), Whereas the Council resolution of 15 July 1974 on a Community policy on data processing (*) is aimed at giving a Community orientation to policies for encou- raging and promoting data processing ; Whereas the development of application software raises a number of general problems concerning programming techniques and relations between manu- facturers and users ; Whereas the development of informatics applications calls for an examination of the problems of data secu- rity and confidentiality and of the technical, legal and social aspects thereof, in particular with a view to protecting citizens in respect of the use of informatic facilities ; Whereas the efficient use of computers is of consider- able economic importance ; whereas, to increase this efficiency, programming techniques must be improved ; Whereas data-base systems and software should be systematically examined and tools developed to help users to select, implement and operate these systems and to facilitate standardization at a later stage ; Whereas the above projects seem necessary in order to attain certain Community objectives within the func- tioning of the common market ; Whereas the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community has not provided the necessary powers, 1) OJ No C 28, 9. 2. 1976, P 6. 7) O] No C 131, 12. 6. 1976, p. 8. %) OJ No C 86, 20. 7. 1974, p. 1. HAS DECIDED AS FOLLOWS: Article 1 The following three joint informatics studies are hereby adopted : (a) study on data security and confidentiality ; (b) study on programming techniques ; (c) study on the evaluation and implementation of informatic systems. These studies are defined in section II of the Annex. Article 2 The duration of the studies referred to in Article 1 shall be three years. The appropriations necessary for carrying them out, which represent 50 % of their cost, shall be entered in the budget of the European Communities. They shall amount to 1245000 units of account. 50 % of the cost of implementing the studies shall be borne by the institutes concerned. Article 3 The Commission shall be responsible for carrying out the studies. It shall be assisted by the Advisory Committee on Joint Data Processing Projects. The Commission shall submit a report to the Council annually. Done at Brussels, 27 September 1977. For the Council The President A. HUMBLET