Towards Innovation
Union The European Commission presented a Communication on October 6, 2010 which outlines the path to Innovation Union. Designed to promote green growth and social progress, the Union Innovation focus the whole of Europe on key issues such as climate change, energy and food security, health and demographic change due to an aging population .
The economic and social
Communications Commission is part of the process of defining a European strategy for the achievement of Europe 2020. Increased investment in innovation is in fact regarded as a cornerstone of the new strategy that should characterize the entire political agenda in the coming years.
The context in which communication is part of the international economic crisis and slow recovery that characterizes the EU countries. If some of the difficulties are contingent unhappy international situation, other problems are more structural. The loss of competitiveness is a phenomenon that has lasted many years and which has among its causes a widespread difficulty to innovate. A more innovative features would be desirable from the point of the competitiveness of European enterprises, sia dal punto di vista della capacità di dare risposte a problemi comuni ai Paesi europei, quali le esigenze di maggiore efficienza della pubblica amministrazione e i problemi sociali ed economici legati all’invecchiamento della popolazione.
La spesa per la ricerca e sviluppo (R&S) è in Europa assai inferiore a quella delle economie comparabili alla nostra (Stati Uniti e Giappone in primis). L’obiettivo per il 2020 sarebbe quello di innalzare la spesa per R&S fino al 3% del PIL, ma attualmente la media europea è inferiore al 2%.
La comunicazione è stata preceduta da diversi studi, il più importante dei quali è “The Cost of a non-innovative Europe”, di P. Zagamé (2010), a supporto della convenienza economica di un maggiore investimento nella ricerca. Inoltre, congiuntamente alla comunicazione è stato pubblicato un documento di accompagnamento (A rationale for action), con dati a supporto delle tesi della comunicazione. A titolo di esempio, si afferma che un aumento della spesa per R&S fino al 3% del PIL potrebbe creare fino a 3,7 milioni di posti di lavoro e aumentare il PIL annuo di ben 795 milioni entro il 2025. L’operazione richiederebbe però un notevole sforzo in termini di investimento: basti pensare che, per sfruttare tutto il potenziale della Innovation Union, sarebbero necessari 1 milione di ricercatori in più.
La Comunicazione della Commissione
The Commission's paper revolves around the need to address some critical aspects of the policy of R & D in Europe. In particular, it highlights the following ten points:
Union The European Commission presented a Communication on October 6, 2010 which outlines the path to Innovation Union. Designed to promote green growth and social progress, the Union Innovation focus the whole of Europe on key issues such as climate change, energy and food security, health and demographic change due to an aging population .
The economic and social
Communications Commission is part of the process of defining a European strategy for the achievement of Europe 2020. Increased investment in innovation is in fact regarded as a cornerstone of the new strategy that should characterize the entire political agenda in the coming years.
The context in which communication is part of the international economic crisis and slow recovery that characterizes the EU countries. If some of the difficulties are contingent unhappy international situation, other problems are more structural. The loss of competitiveness is a phenomenon that has lasted many years and which has among its causes a widespread difficulty to innovate. A more innovative features would be desirable from the point of the competitiveness of European enterprises, sia dal punto di vista della capacità di dare risposte a problemi comuni ai Paesi europei, quali le esigenze di maggiore efficienza della pubblica amministrazione e i problemi sociali ed economici legati all’invecchiamento della popolazione.
La spesa per la ricerca e sviluppo (R&S) è in Europa assai inferiore a quella delle economie comparabili alla nostra (Stati Uniti e Giappone in primis). L’obiettivo per il 2020 sarebbe quello di innalzare la spesa per R&S fino al 3% del PIL, ma attualmente la media europea è inferiore al 2%.
La comunicazione è stata preceduta da diversi studi, il più importante dei quali è “The Cost of a non-innovative Europe”, di P. Zagamé (2010), a supporto della convenienza economica di un maggiore investimento nella ricerca. Inoltre, congiuntamente alla comunicazione è stato pubblicato un documento di accompagnamento (A rationale for action), con dati a supporto delle tesi della comunicazione. A titolo di esempio, si afferma che un aumento della spesa per R&S fino al 3% del PIL potrebbe creare fino a 3,7 milioni di posti di lavoro e aumentare il PIL annuo di ben 795 milioni entro il 2025. L’operazione richiederebbe però un notevole sforzo in termini di investimento: basti pensare che, per sfruttare tutto il potenziale della Innovation Union, sarebbero necessari 1 milione di ricercatori in più.
La Comunicazione della Commissione
The Commission's paper revolves around the need to address some critical aspects of the policy of R & D in Europe. In particular, it highlights the following ten points:
- In times of budgetary restrictions, the EU and the Member States must continue to invest in education, R & D, innovation and communication technologies. These investments should not only be protected from budget cuts, but even increased.
- More investment should go hand in hand with reforms to improve the effectiveness of funding and reduce fragmentation. European and national research should be more interconnected.
- Our education systems must be improved at all levels, using excellence as a guiding principle. We need more world-class universities, to attract talent from abroad.
- researchers and innovators should cooperate at European level as easily as they do nationally. The European Research Area must be completed within four years.
- The access to the EU should be simplified and stimulate more private investment, with support from the European Investment Bank. The role of the European Research Council should be strengthened. The European Regional Development Fund should be used to develop research and innovation strategies based on regional specialization.
- cooperation between scientists and enterprises should be strengthened.
- should remove barriers that prevent the ideas of "entering the market." Are desirable, for example, better access to finance, in particular for small and medium-sized enterprises, intellectual property rights more secure, faster definition of interoperability standards.
- European Innovation Partnerships should be established to accelerate research, development and commercialization of innovative ideas to address le principali sfide sociali e demografiche, a partire da quelle legate all’invecchiamento della popolazione.
- L’innovazione nel settore pubblico dovrebbe essere maggiormente incoraggiata, monitorando i progressi e valorizzando le esperienze positive.
- Occorre collaborare maggiormente con i partner internazionali, promuovendo l’apertura dei nostri programmi di R&S, a condizioni di reciprocità. Allo stesso tempo, è importante creare un fronte comune europeo per difendere i nostri interessi.
A sostegno della Innovation Union, la Commissione ha individuato oltre trenta punti di azione nell’ambito della conoscenza, della commercializzazione delle idee, dei benefici sociali at the regional level, partnerships for innovation and international cooperation. The most important points of communication, in terms of proposals, seem to be as follows:
- Launch of Partnerships for Innovation: the idea is to mobilize the stakeholders - the European and national public and private - in areas related to the challenges social challenges facing Europe. The Commission will allocate funds for the initiation of such partnerships, which will then encourage individual spending on R & D, coordinate investments, accelerate the establishment of standards and stimulate demand.
- Completion of the European Ricerca entro quattro anni. Questo obiettivo da un lato sembra particolarmente ambizioso, dall’altro non è affiancato da indicatori precisi. In ogni caso, la Commissione proporrà nel 2012 un Quadro per lo Spazio Europeo della Ricerca e delle misure concrete per la rimozione degli ostacoli alla cooperazione scientifica transfrontaliera.
- Revisione dei finanziamenti strutturali, in modo da convogliare risorse su iniziative con un valore aggiunto in termini di innovazione. A tale proposito, maggiori dettagli sono forniti dalla comunicazione della Commissione, sempre del 6 ottobre, dal titolo “Il contributo della politica regionale alla crescita intelligente nell’ambito di Europa 2020”.
- Lancio di un European Sector Innovation Scoreboard and a European Social Innovation Pilot, reflecting the need to measure and compare the results. The European Sector Innovation Scoreboard is a scoreboard which is based on 25 indicators and will be completed by a new indicator that reflects the share of innovative companies in fast-growing economy. The European Social Innovation Pilot should encourage partnerships to provide skills for social innovators and provide for social innovation as a main objective of the programs of the European Social Fund.
- By 2012, the Commission ensures that the venture capital funds allocated in a Member State can freely circulate and be invested within the EU. To this end, any unfavorable tax treatment towards trans-national activities should be removed.
- The need to create a single European patent is affirmed. The costs for obtaining a patent valid in all 27 EU countries are 15 times higher than those of the United States and represent a true "tax on innovation." The Commission urges the Council and the European Parliament for the first patents to be issued as early as 2014.
- The strategic use of funds allocated for public procurement at national level in order to focus on activities to support innovation. Since 2011, Member States and regions should devote part of their budget to pre-commercial procurement and public procurement of products and services. This should create a European market of at least € 10 billion for innovations that improve the quality and efficiency of public services.
What future for Innovation Union?
Research and innovation are areas where a strong coordination and leadership in Europe is particularly convenient. By joining forces, significant economies of scale would be activated, with important gains in efficiency and results. The costs of duplication of research programs at the national level are no longer sustainable, in particular at this historic time of economic difficulty. The most effective way to boost European innovation policy consists of an increase in the level of resources allocated for R & D, together with a greater business involvement. If the Commission Communication seems to be going in this direction, the European Council in December 2010 will help clarify the actual scope of the proposed initiatives. Again, much will depend on the willingness of Member States to allocate resources with a view to investment that exceeds national boundaries.
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