‘Stop complaining, start innovating'

Lagging behind but trying to catch up

José Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission, opened the Innovation Convention with a gloomy picture of the state of innovation in Europe:

The share of researchers in the total labour force is 6% in the EU compared with 9% in the United States and 11% in Japan.

Barroso said that the EU is “lagging behind” in fast-growing, technology-driven sectors such as software, hardware and electronic equipment, although it is the “undisputable research and development leader” in the automobile sector.

Only one in five of the “leading innovators” in the EU is in their early 30s, compared with more than half in the US.

Only 26% of the EU workforce has a higher education qualification, yet 35% of all jobs in the EU will require high-level qualifications by 2020.

Only 30% of people in the EU aged between 25 and 34 have completed a university degree, compared to well above 50% in Japan and more than 40% in the US.

It takes, on average, 15 days to start a business in the EU, compared to six days in the United States.

However, Barroso said that the EU was trying to improve the situation and that innovation was “one of our highest priorities”. Initiatives to boost innovation include:

A unified EU patent, on which agreement should be concluded by the end of the year.

A proposal before the end of the year to simplify the public procurement framework, “which will include concrete innovation-friendly measures”.

A standardisation package, already proposed, which will “modernise and speed up standard setting by 50%”.

The creation of a single market for venture capital funds so that they can easily raise capital across Europe and better invest in European SMEs.

A proposal to dedicate €80 billion to research and innovation funding, an increase of 46%.