By Martin Banks - 2nd December 2010
We need more bang for our buck
Máire Geoghegan-Quinn
EU commissioner Máire Geoghegan-Quinn has warned that Europe faces an "innovation emergency".
The Irish official, who is in charge of the commission's research and innovation policy, admitted that while the challenges in getting Europe out of the current economic crisis are "immense", so are the opportunities.
Addressing a breakfast debate in Brussels on Thursday, she said Europe "needs innovation to build long-term sustainable growth and an economically-stable future".
Her comments come in the wake of the commission's recently-launched "innovation union" initiative, one of the main flagship policies of the EU2020 strategy which aims to put Europe's economy back on track.
She pointed out that the EU's share of global R&D investments fell from 28 to 23 per cent over the last decade, adding, "We must reverse this decline."
Reaching the target of investing three per cent of GDP on R&D could create, she said, more than three million jobs and increase annual GDP by €700bn by 2025.
Geoghegan-Quinn said, "We need to safeguard and boost private and public sector spending on research if we are to meet the three per cent R&D target.
"We need to invest more efficiently. We need more bang for our buck."
One of the "most ground-breaking" of the commission's initiative, she said, is the proposal for "innovation partnerships".
She said, "While there is a clear rationale for innovation, we also need innovation to focus on the big societal challenges we face, such as fighting climate change, using scarce resources more wisely and efficiently and caring for the growing numbers of older people."
Addressing a European Policy Centre debate, she welcomed the response from member states to the innovation union proposal.
"This is an auspicious starting point for the discussions that heads of state and government will have on innovation early next year," she said.
