EUROPEAN COMMISSION TO ACT ON EU INNOVATION POLICY
European Commission (EC) said it would present new innovation policy early next year, addressing concerns raised by EC based on results of 2002 European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS). Report innovation in European Union (EU) was low compared with U.S. and Japan. “Urgent action is needed to boost innovation,” Enterprise & Innovation Society Comr. Erkki Liikanen said. EU spokeswoman said that after new EC recommendation was approved by Board of Commissioners, it would be put on agenda of next Competitiveness Council scheduled for March.
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Gaps in high-tech patenting and business R&D investments “persist” and “reinforce” concerns for future of technology- based innovation in EU, Commission said. Liikanen said innovation had to be on top of agenda for enlarging EU if Union were to meet its goals of becoming most competitive knowledge-based economy worldwide by 2010.
U.S. is ahead of EU in 7 areas, particularly in share of manufacturing value-added from high technology and high-tech patents, report said. While EU and U.S. show equal declines in public R&D investments, EU’s growth in high-technology patenting and business R&D investment remains “insufficient to catch up with the U.S.,” EIS said.
However, trends show “marked improvements” for EU and suggest it may be catching up with its main global competitors, report said, with performance in EU improving faster than U.S. for 5 of 8 comparable indicators. EU also had made better progress than Japan in all areas, particularly in home Internet access. U.S. leads EU for high-technology patents and business R&D, EIS said. EIS found EU contained world’s leading countries in innovation. Smaller northern economies such as Finland, Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands remained leading innovators in EU, with U.K. being most innovative of large economies. For 7 of 10 comparable indicators, EU leaders were ahead of both U.S. and Japan. Southern Europe also was “rapidly catching up,” EIS said.
None of countries seeking to join EU exceeded EU average in rate of employment in high-tech services, private R&D investment, patenting and level of Internet access, EIS said, but many were showing positive performance in employment in high-tech manufacturing, spending on information and communication technologies and amount of inward foreign direct investment. Candidate countries still lacked reliable innovation data, Commission said: “This weakness has to be addressed by their governments as it is hindering effective policy decisions.”