EU 'lags behind' US and Japan on innovation

A new report says Europe is 'lagging behind' the US and Japan in terms of innovation.

This is particularly so, it claims, in the pharmaceutical sector.

"In this domain, this trend is quite visible with a direct effect for patient groups in the EU, " said Ivan Baines, of the Max Planck Institute, a leading research think tank.

He said the so-called 'gold standard implementation" approach of the new food health claims regulation "will make matters worse."

Baines, science coordinator for the institute, said this policy will "limit innovation" by further reducing EU-based R&D budgets.

"As a consequence, policies promoting prevention of diseases rather than the costly fight once these have struck may be rendered futile.

"This makes the lack of an impact analysis of the current approach additionally painful, particularly as the European Food Safety Agency tasked with the health claims evaluations is said to be overburdened and ill-equipped to prevent procedural unfairness."

He added, "The lack of an economic impact analysis raises even more uncertainty about the efficacy of this important piece of legislation in terms of one of its major objectives, that is, to stimulate innovation."

He said that a "too rigid and restrictive" regulatory environment "can do much harm to European innovation in the food sector.

Baines was speaking at a debate in Brussels, organised by the institute, entitled "innovation and the economy in the EU."

The event, at the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and Arts, attracted a range of experts and EU policymakers. Participants included  Danish MEP Karin Riis-Jorgensen and Dutch deputy Jules Maaten.

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