(2000) 6 - EUR-Lex

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– And it is in the European regions where the business research effort is at its greatestthat the lowest unemployment rates tend to be found.The European Council has stressed on several occasions in recent years the importance ofsustained research and technological development for growth and employment. It will lookfurther into this issue at the Special European Council in Lisbon in March entitled"Employment, economic reform and social cohesion - Towards a Europe of innovation andknowledge". The European Parliament, for its part, has often drawn attention to the need forEurope to increase investment in science and technology.3. PUBLIC RESEARCH EFFORTResearch plays a central role in the implementation of public policy and is also at the heart ofthe policy-making process. In areas such as health, sustainable development or industrial,food and nuclear safety, policy options and decisions must be based on more solid scientificknowledge and a full and proper understanding of the economic and social aspectssurrounding the problems in question.Basic research is now carried out in various institutional frameworks: universities, researchinstitutes, companies and consortia of each. In some cases it can be translated fairly rapidlyinto concrete applications. This has been the case, for example, with breakthroughs inmolecular biology and immunology in the field of health. It can also give rise to unexpectedapplications years later in fields somewhat removed from the ones they started out in .In the United States the major basic research agencies have kept up and even increased theirresearch effort in recent years. And Japan, eager to make up the leeway, has constantlyincreased its efforts in this area . Europe would be quite wrong to reduce its investment in thisarea. Science is after all and always has been one of the biggest and most exciting adventuresof the human spirit. It is the product of a creativity which must not disappear in the Europe ofthe 21st century.4. PRIVATE INVESTMENTThe private sector finances more than half and carries out two thirds of Europe’s research andtechnological development activities. Private investment in research and development inEurope, which had dipped, has picked up again in recent years. Investment by internationaland multinational concerns in Europe has maintained at a high level and even increased.Because of the globalisation of the economy, together with the industrial and technologicalalliances and mergers and acquisitions that are mushrooming in every sector, these companiesare developing research and development strategies on an international scale. For some of theprivate sector research is thus increasingly at European and even world level.That said, the global increase in expenditure on research and development in the private sectoris less than it has been amongst its main competitors in the United States and Asia. Basically,this due to the somewhat limited research effort of medium sized businesses and smallenterprises. In Europe the latter are made up essentially of companies that do or could usetechnology and whose future depends on the development of their technological capacities.But only a limited number of small businesses are exploiting the potential of high technology,and the creation of companies commercialising the results of research and development is stillon the low side in Europe.6
On the other hand, the European financial market has not yet sufficiently discovered theeconomic value of investment in knowledge. While it has now started to increase, the volumeof risk capital being channelled into innovation is still limited in Europe. Investment of thistype of capital in high tech sectors and in the creation of companies is much lower than in theUnited States. By and large, the climate for private investment into research in Europe needsto be improved.5. ORGANISATION OF RESEARCH IN EUROPEThe Treaty provides the European Union with a legal basis for measures to help to supportEuropean cooperation in research and technological development.However, the principal reference framework for research activities in Europe is national.Funding of the various initiatives of European, Community or intergovernmental scientificand technological cooperation does not exceed 17% of the total public expenditure onEuropean research.The principal instrument used so far in Europe is the European Union’s frameworkprogramme for research. In financial terms, however, it accounts for only about 5.4% of thetotal public effort. While it is a useful instrument for promoting international cooperation, italone does not able the achievement of a better organisation of the European research effort.Above the European research effort as it stands today is no more than the simple addition ofthe efforts of the 15 Member States and the Union. This fragmentation, isolation andcompartmentalisation of national research efforts and systems and the disparity of regulatoryand administrative systems only serve to compound the impact of lower global investment inknowledge.Decompartmentalisation and better integration of Europe’s scientific and technological area isan indispensable condition for invogorating research in Europe. We need to go beyond thecurrent static structure of “15+1” towards a more dynamic configuration. This has to be basedon a more coherent approach involving measures taken at different levels: by the MemberStates at national level, by the European Union with the framework programme and otherpossible instruments, and by intergovernmental cooperation organisations. A configuration ofthis kind would make for the essential “critical mass” in the major areas of progress inknowledge, in particular to achieve economies of scale, to allocate resources better overall,and to reduce negative externalities due to insufficient mobility of factors and poorinformation for operators.The European market of supply and demand in knowledge and technology still remainslargely to be created. For it to develop and function a real European research policy needs tobe defined.6. A REAL EUROPEAN POLICY: TOWARDS A EUROPEAN RESEARCH AREAIt cannot be said that there is today a European policy on research. National research policiesand Union policy overlap without forming a coherent whole. If more progress is to be made abroader approach is needed than the one adopted to date. The forthcoming enlargement of theUnion will only increase this need. It opens the prospect of a Europe of 25 or 30 countrieswhich will not be able to operate with the methods used so far.7
Page 1 and 2: COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNIT
Page 3 and 4: 5. More abundant and more mobile hu
Page 5: - However, research and technology
Page 9 and 10: the shape that these should take co
Page 12 and 13: 2. MORE COHERENT USE OF PUBLIC INST
Page 14 and 15: To increase the impact of research
Page 16 and 17: 5. MORE ABUNDANT AND MORE MOBILE HU
Page 18 and 19: the different "science weeks" organ
Page 20 and 21: 7. AN AREA OF SHARED VALUES7.1. Tac
Page 22 and 23: CONDITIONS FOR ACTION1. LINES AND M
Page 24 and 25: forum. This Communication will be p
Page 26 and 27: 3. MORE DYNAMIC PRIVATE INVESTMENT3
Page 28 and 29: - Simplification and harmonisation
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Page 34 and 35: 7. INTENSITY OF R&D IN APPLICANT CO
Page 36 and 37: 9. THE EUROPEAN UNION DEFICIT OF FO
Page 38: 12. COOPERATION AGREEMENTS BETWEEN

(2000) 6 - EUR-Lex

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