Text tabled : A6-0041/2008

  Syed Kamall (PPE-DE). – Mr President, I represent London, the greatest city in the world, capital of the greatest country in the world. In my city, we have a number of innovative universities, so you might think that I would be in favour of this report, but actually I voted against it. I would just like to explain why.

Thomas Dolby, the lyricist, once sang, ‘She blinded me with science’. The band 2 Unlimited once said, ‘Digital revolution, technical solution; for some it only brings more and more confusion’. Now, whatever the merits of the lyrics, I think that this applies to the thinking behind the EIT. The Commission is right that Europe is successful in research but lacks innovation. But how do you get innovation?

You do not arrive at innovation through more structures, more bricks and mortar. You do not arrive at innovation by duplicating existing effort. What we see here is the EIT seeking to emulate the success of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States without learning the successful business model behind the MIT. That is why I voted against.