Commissioner Philippe Busquin's call to increase research spending in Europe supported by UNICE

Brussels, 23 May 2002

Research and innovation are key in fostering EU economic performance, so as to meet the March 2000 Lisbon European Council's objective of turning the EU into the most competitive knowledge-based economy in the world. During a meeting today with Research Commissioner Philippe Busquin, representatives of the EU business and industry organisation UNICE(1) expressed their support to the objective, adopted by the March 2002 Barcelona European Council, to increase European research and technological development (R&D) spending so as to approach 3% of GDP by 2010, up from today's average of 1.9%. They emphasised that to reach the objective, public authorities must mobilise to considerably improve the conditions of R&D investment for enterprises in the Union. The Commissioner will respond to this request with a Communication to be presented in the next few months, so as to launch the dialogue that he wishes to establish with Member States and all relevant actors, including European enterprises.

The objective to raise R&D spending is extremely relevant for enterprises, because they represent on average only 55% of research funding in the EU compared to 66% or more in the United States and in the best performing EU countries. This is why the objective decided in Barcelona is not only to approach 3% of GDP by 2010 but also to encourage enterprises to increase their share of research funding.

Such an increase will only be possible if public authorities implement appropriate policies to make R&D investment in Europe more attractive for enterprises. A number of areas for action can be identified, such as:

a true European Research Area with improved interactions between industry, government research and academia,

public support initiatives for business R&D investment,

and the framework conditions in which European companies operate: availibility and quality of human resources; financial and fiscal conditions; intellectual property systems; regulatory barriers; etc.

The Communication announced by Commissioner Busquin will identify these different areas for action and propose preliminary analyses on them.

For its part, UNICE confirmed the support of EU industry for the important political goal of increasing R&D spending in the Union to boost innovation and competitiveness, while emphasising the key role of public policies to encourage the investment of enterprises in research.

Commissioner Busquin underlined the growing unbalance between the EU investments in R&D, and those of the United States and Japan. The gap between these efforts is in the order of 80 billion euros a year and it is growing rapidly, hampering the innovation potential of the European economy and its prospects for long term competitiveness and growth. If this trend is not reversed quickly, it risks compromising EU drive to meet the objectives set at the Lisbon European Council. Hence the key policy aim adopted by the Barcelona European Council, to devote 3% of GDP to R&D. (see IP/02/290 for a more detailed analysis).

(1) Union of Industrial and Empoyers' Confederations of Europe HYPERLINK http://www.unice.org http://www.unice.org

DN: IP/02/762 Date: 24/05/2002