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For its new mandate, the European Commission has put innovation and its commercial development at the heart of enhancing European Union competitiveness. The priority builds on the Draghi and Letta recommendations emphasising the need to boost the EU's competitiveness to ensure its long-term sustainability and prosperity. For this purpose, the Commission also aims to revisit the EU's innovation funding programmes to improve their effectiveness and attract additional private investment in innovation ...

Space technologies are playing an increasingly critical role in communications, defence and research. As more satellites are launched, there is a growing risk of collision, and of satellites becoming military targets. Satellite-debris collisions have the potential to destroy not just one or two but many satellites, preventing the use of those orbits for years. Although de-orbiting satellites at a faster pace may be a solution, orbital debris falling back to Earth can cause environmental harm. Europe ...

This study examines the evolution and the current status of the implementation of synergies between Horizon Europe and the Cohesion Policy funds for research and innovation activities. It provides insights into the main barriers and drivers for the uptake of these synergies, along with possible pathways forward to achieve greater innovation outcomes. This document was provided by the Policy Department for Economic, Scientific and Quality of Life Policies at the request of the Committee on Industry ...

This study examines the evolution and the current status of the implementation of synergies between Horizon Europe and the Cohesion Policy funds for research and innovation activities. It provides insights into the main barriers and drivers for the uptake of these synergies, along with possible pathways forward to achieve greater innovation outcomes. This document was provided by the Policy Department for Economic, Scientific and Quality of Life Policies at the request of the Committee on Industry ...

The EU design legislative reform package includes two texts amending Council Regulation (EC) No 6/2002 (the Community Design Regulation) and, in parallel, recasting Directive 98/71/EC (the Design Directive) to align the design protection system in the EU with the digital age and make it more accessible and efficient for applicants. In terms of digitalisation, the update of the requirements for representing designs will allow applicants to file new digital design types (e.g. by using 3D printing technologies ...

For the European Union to compete globally while continuing to ensure progress in environmental, social and fundamental rights, more strategic and collective action is imperative. In a world where some leading global businesses have a market capitalisation of more than €3 trillion, an integrated economic, financial and fiscal policy framework is needed to encourage innovation and growth, including for successful SMEs. As the recent Letta and Draghi reports highlight, this requires clear political ...

Since its creation in the 1950s, the European Economic Community, and today's European Union, has had the power to promote equality between women and men, initially in employment and later also in other areas of life. EU action has driven significant progress, even if disparities persist in many areas. To secure this progress, the EU has enabled Member States to implement positive action measures in favour of women and has adopted ground-breaking legislative and non-legislative measures, such as ...

Building a European defence union is at the top of the EU's policy agenda. It is essential to preserving the security and wellbeing of EU society from current and future geopolitical threats. A reflection on the efficiency and quality of defence spending is a crucial first step in this process. Based on research carried out for the European Parliamentary Research Service, this report investigates the potential gains from deeper European cooperation on defence spending that leverages the continent's ...

Europe could gain competitive edge by supporting the development of new hardware for artificial intelligence (AI). Current state-of-the-art hardware is not optimised for machine learning, and both academic and private sector research is already leading to new designs. At the same time, the need for more time- and energy-efficient machine-learning hardware is increasing as more consumers and companies want access to machine-learning applications. The European Union (EU) has the opportunity to leverage ...

On 9 July 2024, the successful maiden flight of the new heavy-lift rocket Ariane 6 reinstated the EU's autonomous access to space. This came after several months of reliance on private United States launchers as a result of the temporary unavailability of an EU rocket. In recent years, the space sector has witnessed the conjunction of three trends. First, the space economy has grown globally, also because of competitive private actors. Second, as a consequence, space is now increasingly congested ...