Liikanen rejects 'one size fits all' approach to EU innovation
Speaking at the 12th International Geography Festival in St. Dié-des-Vosges, France, on 4 October, European Enterprise Commissioner Erkki Liikanen said that despite the differences in Member State performance highlighted by the 2001 EU Innovation Scoreboard, copying the policies of the most successful countries was not the answer. Commissioner Liikanen emphasised that it is important to recognise that a 'one-size-fits-all' approach to EU innovation is not the answer to Member State disparities. 'The challenge for Member States is not necessarily to reproduce the policies of the countries with the best results, but to define their own innovation policy talking into account the strengths, weaknesses, priorities and cultural traditions by which they are defined,' he said. He added, however, that: 'The disparities in innovation performance across the Union are even more important than the differences in economic and social development. One of our aims must be to help reduce these imbalances.' He said that the most significant differences between EU Member States is in areas under the direct influence of the private sector, including R&D (research and development) expenditure by companies and patent applications in the area of high technology. On the other hand, the gaps are less marked in areas strongly influenced by public policy, such as further education and public investment in R&D. Commissioner Liikanen also emphasised that the scoreboard results showed that the Europeans are global leaders in several areas. The UK, Ireland and France lead in the production of science and engineer graduates, and Holland, Sweden and Denmark head the field the number of households connected to the Internet. He added that the Innovation Scoreboard is a point of departure for analysis of the different innovation environments and strategic approaches within Europe. Mr Liikanen also presented provisional results from a Commission study of innovation in 6 EU candidate countries - Cyprus, Estonia, Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovenia - which showed that Poland has been quick to adopt policies favourable to innovation. Commissioner Liikanen added that Poland is one of the only candidate countries to have conducted an investigation into private sector innovation, along the same lines as the Community innovation study. The Commission's study will be to be published at the end of the year Mr Liikanen also outlined priority areas identified by in the Commission's Communication on 'Innovation in a knowledge-driven economy' where action is needed to obtain the objective agreed at the March 2000 summit of making Europe the most innovative knowledge-based economy in the world. These include action to improve coherence between Member State policies in favour of innovation, and the introduction of a regulatory framework which would help to further encourage innovation. He also said the Commission had prioritised the creation of innovative enterprises and the encouragement key interfaces in the innovation network. He added that, last but not least, the Commission aims to encourage the development of a society open to, and well-informed about, innovation.
Countries
Portugal