Innovation plays an increasing role in our economy. It provides benefits for citizens as both consumers and workers. It is essential to creating better jobs, building a greener society and improving our quality of life, but also to maintaining EU competitiveness in the global market. Innovation policy is the interface between research and technological development policy and industrial policy and aims to create a conducive framework for bringing ideas to market.
The legal basis for the EU’s general industrial policy is Article 173 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), which states that ‘the Union and the Member States shall ensure that the conditions necessary for the competitiveness of the Union’s industry exist’.
The legal basis for EU policy on research and technological development (RTD) is provided by Articles 179 to 190 of the TFEU. The main instrument of the Union’s RTD policy is the multiannual Framework Programme, which sets objectives, priorities and the financial package of support for a period of several years. The RTD Framework Programmes are adopted by the European Parliament and the Council, acting in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedures and after consulting the European Economic and Social Committee.
The importance of innovation policy is widely recognised. It is also strongly linked to other EU policies, such as those on employment, competitiveness, environment, industry and energy. The role of innovation is to turn research results into new and better services and products in order to remain competitive in the global marketplace and improve the quality of life of Europe’s citizens.
Europe spends 0.8% of GDP less than the US and 1.5% less than Japan every year on research and development (R&D). In addition, some brain drain effect occurs as our best researchers and innovators move to countries where conditions are more favourable. Although the EU market is the largest in the world, it remains fragmented and is not sufficiently innovation-friendly.
With a view to changing these trends, the EU has developed the concept of an ‘Innovation Union’, which aims to:
The Innovation Union is a crucial investment in our future. For example, achieving our target of investing 3% of EU GDP in R&D by 2020 could create 3.7 million jobs and increase annual GDP by EUR 795 billion by 2025.
The Innovation Union is one of the seven flagship initiatives of the Europe 2020 strategy for a smart, sustainable and inclusive economy. Launched by the European Commission in October 2010, it aims to improve conditions and access to finance for research and innovation in Europe so that innovative ideas can be turned into products and services that create growth and jobs. The Innovation Union aims to create a genuine single European market for innovation, which would attract innovative companies and businesses. To achieve this, various measures have been proposed in the fields of patent protection, standardisation, public procurement and smart regulation. The Innovation Union also aims to stimulate private sector investment and proposes, among other things, to increase European venture capital investments.
Several instruments have been introduced to measure and monitor the situation across the EU and the progress being made:
Innovation is made possible by research and education. The EU would require at least one million more researchers in the next decade to reach the target of investing 3% of its GDP in R&D by 2020. The Innovation Union has proposed measures to complete the European Research Area. This means more coherence between European and national research policies, and removing obstacles to researchers’ mobility. In education, the Commission supports projects to develop new curricula addressing innovation skills gaps.
Furthermore, various measures have been proposed in the fields of patent protection, standardisation, public procurement and smart regulation in order to attract innovative companies and businesses. In 2011, the Commission drew up a strategy to strengthen European standardisation (COM(2011) 0315), in which it highlights the need to improve the method for setting standards and the use of standards in Europe in order to leverage European and international standards in the interests of the long-term competitiveness of European industry. In addition, European Innovation Partnerships (EIP) have been designed to bring together public and private stakeholders at EU, national and regional levels in order to tackle major challenges in society and to help create jobs and growth by combining supply- and demand-side measures.
As a Europe 2020 flagship initiative aimed at securing Europe’s global competitiveness, Horizon 2020 is the financial instrument which provides for the implementation of the Innovation Union. Being the EU’s 8th Framework Programme (2014-2020) for research, Horizon 2020 is the first programme to integrate research and innovation. It enacts many of the specific Innovation Union commitments, notably by focusing on real challenges facing society, simplifying access, involving SMEs, strengthening financial instruments, supporting public procurement of innovation, facilitating collaboration, and supporting research on public-sector and social innovation. In November 2013, Parliament adopted the multiannual financial framework (MFF), allocating Horizon 2020 a budget of EUR 77 billion (at 2013 prices). However, in June 2015 the adoption of the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI) lowered this amount to EUR 74.8 billion.
It should be noted that an interim evaluation of Horizon 2020 is a mandatory requirement of the Regulation establishing Horizon 2020. This interim evaluation is planned for the third quarter of 2017 and will contribute to improving the implementation of Horizon 2020 and provide a solid evidence base for designing future activities and initiatives. In fact, the results will be used to lay the foundations of the structure and content of the 9th Framework Programme, on which a proposal will be published in the first half of 2018.
Cohesion policy also focuses on research and innovation. In more developed regions at least 80% of resources from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) at national level are allocated to innovation, with the priorities being a low-carbon economy and competitive SMEs.
The Innovation Union also aims to stimulate private-sector investment and proposes, among other things, to increase European venture capital investments, which currently stand at a quarter of the level in the United States. In order to improve access to loans for R&D projects and launch demonstration projects, the Commission, in cooperation with the European Investment Bank Group (EIB and EIF), has launched a joint initiative under Horizon 2020. ‘InnovFin – EU Finance for Innovators’ consists of a series of integrated and complementary financing tools and advisory services offered by the EIB Group, covering the entire value chain of research and innovation in order to support investments from the smallest to the largest enterprise.
In addition, in November 2014 the Commission proposed its ‘Investment Plan for Europe’ for unlocking public and private investments in the ‘real economy’ to the sum of at least EUR 315 billion over a three-year fiscal period. EFSI is one of the three pillars of the ‘Investment Plan for Europe’ and aims to overcome current market failures by addressing market gaps and mobilising private investment. It helps to finance strategic investments in key areas such as infrastructure, research and innovation, education, renewable energy and energy efficiency, as well as risk financing for SMEs.
Furthermore, a programme for the Competitiveness of Enterprises and SMEs (COSME) has also been introduced, to focus on financial instruments and provide support for the internationalisation of SMEs.
In June 2015, Carlos Moedas, the Commissioner responsible for research, science and innovation, announced the idea of a European Innovation Council (EIC). In January 2017, the Commission created a fifteen-member High Level Group (HLG) of Innovators that will help shape the design of a possible European Innovation Council in the framework of the Commission’s proposals for the successor programme to Horizon 2020.
Parliament has adopted numerous resolutions which have further strengthened the EU’s innovation policy. Some of the most recent are:
[1]OJ C 279E, 19.11.2009, p. 65.
[2]OJ C 236E, 12.8.2011, p. 57.
[3]OJ C 74E, 13.3.2012, p. 11.
[4]OJ C 199 E, 7.7.2012, p. 131.
[5]OJ C 377E, 7.12.2012, p. 108.
[6]OJ C 56E, 26.2.2013, p. 1.
[7]OJ C 131E, 8.5.2013, p. 87.
[8]OJ C 436, 24.11.2016, p. 284.
[9]Texts adopted, P8_TA(2016)0311.
Frédéric Gouardères / Susanne Horl
02/2018
European Parliament
European Parliament