Committee of the Regions calls for greater local role in innovation
The Committee of the Regions has called for greater recognition of the role local Member State authorities can play in the move towards a knowledge-based economy set out at the European Council in Lisbon in March 2000. In a draft opinion on the 'Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council - Innovation in a knowledge-based economy,' the Committee said: '[We believe] that innovation is the key process that links research with enterprise, and allows jobs, goods and services to be created as a result. Innovation promotion policy should therefore be strategic, and not sectoral, and as a consequence emphasis should be placed on ensuring an integrated and coherent approach at all levels.' The Committee went on to outline the importance of regional authorities in this multi-level process, saying: 'Local authorities are directly responsible for many of the functions which contribute to the innovation support system. These include economic development, education and training, development of science, technology and business parks [and] land use planning.' It added: 'Local government should actively be encouraged to mesh their policies with policies operating at national and European levels to ensure a strong, united and transparent framework for the promotion of innovation.' The Committee also stressed the role of social and economic cohesion policy, including instruments such as EU Structural Funds for regional development, in creating stable conditions for research and industry: 'The role of the EU and Member States is...to focus on creating the right framework conditions to allow innovation support to develop, and this clearly involves creating a level playing field.' The Committee went on to highlight the importance of investing in human potential across the board, adding: 'Skills policies matter because the source of all innovation is the application of the human intellect.' The Committee said it supported the five priority areas proposed by the European Commission as they 'reflect the key issues facing the EU as a whole.' The Commission called for greater coherence of innovation policies across the EU, a regulatory framework conducive to innovation, fostering of innovative enterprise creation and growth, the improvement of key interfaces in the innovation system and the creation of a society open to innovation. It added that the development of collective working strategies was key to the success of the Commission's proposals: 'The systemic view of innovation which is based on continuous improvement of processes and which implies not only the need to increase the knowledge of individuals but also the development of collective knowledge, is seen as the most valuable methodology for developing innovation policies and strategies.' The Committee also backed the Commission's Innovation Scoreboard initiative and called for the consideration of measures to publish local scoreboards to allow the evaluation of the success of regional innovation activity. The Committee also said consideration should be given to extending the scoreboard to include EU applicant countries as 'this would better reflect the realities of commercial interaction between organisations and the efficiency of networking in this area within the European space as a whole.' In addition, the Committee said it 'would welcome ideas from the Commission relating to further strands of research to help strengthen our understanding of innovation systems and ways to support them.' The Committee also backed the agreement made at the Lisbon European Council in March 2000 to reduce the burden of red tape on businesses, and called for more positive action to deal with excessive bureaucracy. It also drew attention to the role of intellectual property rights in a knowledge-based economy, recommending 'that rules governing the intellectual property of researchers be harmonised in the EU, which will encourage researchers to appraise the economic value of their findings and will also enhance application-oriented cooperation between researchers in different countries. The Committee also said that it is important to recognise the distinction between 'innovative' and 'hi-tech,' saying there are many traditional industrial sectors, such as steel production, which could benefit from new products and processes. It emphasised: 'This is particularly important for localities and regions outside the central European 'core'...whose economies are still characterised by more traditional industries such as footwear and textiles.' The Commission adopted the communication 'Innovation in a knowledge-based economy' last year in the wake of commitments made at the March 2000 Lisbon summit, which called for Europe to become the most competitive knowledge-based economy in the world.