European businesses call for urgent action on innovation
At a press conference to present the third European Business Summit (EBS) taking place from 11 to 12 March in Brussels, an appeal was made to policy makers, on behalf of businesses, to take urgent action to allow companies to innovate. If present trends continue, future research will be carried out outside the EU, warns a survey presented at the conference. The survey carried out by the firm Arthur D Little for the third EBS, which will focus on 'Research and innovation: A European strategy for more growth and jobs'. It paints a bleak picture of the future of European research if no action is taken at national level. A significant proportion of company managers in Belgium, Austria and Germany, interviewed as part of the study, said that innovation is a top priority for them, but that they can envisage expanding their research and development (R&D) capacity outside their country and most likely outside Europe if their governments fail to deliver supportive boundary conditions in the coming years. Boundary conditions are described as taxes, financial incentives, labour market, education, environmental regulations, permits and technology transfer from university research. The business representatives interviewed also emphasised the fact that policy continuity is a vital element. Without stability and reliability in boundary conditions, it is difficult for them to plan an innovation strategy running over a number of years. The survey therefore called for government policy makers to improve the fiscal treatment of R&D and the fiscal incentives for carrying out R&D; to improve existing R&D support and lessen the bureaucracy associated with it; reduce the regulatory hurdles such as obtaining permits and acquiring patents; and stimulate a greater application and industry orientation of public research at universities. If no such action is taken, the survey showed, the consequences would be threefold. Companies that could afford to, would relocate their R&D capacities outside Europe; companies that could not, such as small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), would take the risk of innovating less and therefore loose their competitive edge. And more importantly, many new innovative companies would not be created in the first place. Philippe de Buck van Overstraeten, Secretary General of UNICE, the union of industrial and employers' confederations of Europe, agreed with the conclusions of the study, stating that to guarantee a satisfactory output, government spending has to be matched with an appropriate regulatory framework. However, he warned 'in Europe the output is not at the same level as it is elsewhere.' Addressing the role of universities, Mr de Buck van Overstraeten emphasised the need for a better European university policy. 'At present,' he said, 'although in general European universities are better than American ones, we suffer from a lack of top ones'. Kurt Vandenberghe, from the cabinet of Research Commissioner Philippe Busquin, said that the international university conference taking place in Liège from 26 to 28 April is aimed precisely at changing this. 'The first of its kind, the conference will work towards a European strategy for university-based research and innovation.' Mr Vandenberghe went on to say that action at European level is one thing, but it is now up to Member States to do the rest. 'We have reasons to be pessimistic if Europe and Member states don't deliver on the Lisbon agenda,' he said. 'We need some positive dynamics.' A first step would be if France, Germany and the UK, the locomotives of the European economy, would follow the example of Finland and Sweden, which spend 4.3 and 3.8 percent respectively of their GDP on research. 'Sweden and Finland are the proof that what is needed is not total deregulation but smart regulation,' said Mr Vandenberghe, who concluded by saying that the Commission encourages business to use the EBS as a platform to send a strong signal to policy makers in time for the Spring Council.