By Henrietta Billings - 18th July 2005
Europe will fail to meet research investment targets unless national governments boost spending on R&D, EU science chief Janez Potocnik has warned.
In a Tuesday report on research and development funding, the European research commissioner said the growth rate of R&D expenditure has been in decline since 2000 and is now close to zero.
Potocnik warned that on current trends, the EU is on track to miss a EU target to boost research spending from the current 1.3 per cent to three per cent by 2010.
The target was set by Europe’s leaders five years at a Lisbon summit to boost Europe’s economic growth and to make the EU a high-tech world beater.
"We must heed this wake-up call. If the current trends continue, Europe will lose the opportunity to become a leading global knowledge based economy," said Potocnik.
In 2003 China invested 1.31 per cent of GDP - lower than the EU - but it grew about ten per cent between 1997-2202.
By 2010, The European Commission warns, China is expected to spend the same proportion of GDP on research as the EU - about 2.2 per cent.
A recent impact study for the commission showed that research in technology and science helped to boost Europe's productivity and growth, but so far EU countries have failed to act on pledges to increase spending in research to three per cent of GDP by 2010.
The EU still lags behind the US and Japan, who invest 2.76 and 3.12 per cent respectively in R&D.
In April, Brussels unveiled plans double its research budget to €73 billion over seven years, but this figure could be cut in a bid to find a compromise over the current EU budget impasse.
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