EU: Call to maintain 3% research target

Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, European Union commissioner for research, innovation and science, believes the bloc's target of spending 3% of GDP on research and development must be maintained if Europe is to put itself firmly on the road to economic recovery.

Delivering the keynote address at the Lisbon Council's 2010 Innovation Summit, her first major speech as innovation commissioner since the European Parliament hearing in January, Geoghegan-Quinn said innovation had risen to the top of the Brussels policy agenda, partly because of the economic crisis and competition from emerging nations, and partly because of the 2009 European Year of Creativity and Innovation.

With the Lisbon Agenda for Growth and Jobs having expired in 2010 and a European Innovation Act set for the spring, European Commission President José Manuel Barroso appointed Irishwoman Geoghegan-Quinn as the EU's first commissioner for research, innovation and science (EurActiv 30/11/09). 


The commission formally unveiled its new strategy for jobs and growth, 'Europe 2020', earlier this month. One of the five headline targets of the strategy is increasing investment in R&D to 3% of the EU's GDP.

Geoghegan-Quinn acknowledged current debates surrounding the 3% R&D objective but insisted now was the wrong time to make cutbacks in a sector that was under-performing in many EU member states.

Referring to the 3% target, she said, ''I know that this is controversial. But I believe that it should stay. Research ministers have told me in clear terms that its existence has strengthened their hand in their dealings with their finance ministers ...

"Now is exactly the wrong moment to remove this discipline. With budgets under pressure, governments may view research and development as an easy area for cutbacks. But we know, from the experiences of countries like Finland, that raising R&D budgets is the route to recovery."

Geoghegan-Quinn sees research and innovation as core components of the EU's new Europe 2020 strategy and believes they must have high priority to create new sources of growth and employment.

She stressed the importance of cross-border collaboration and pledged to establish better infrastructure for the European Research Area. Progress was also needed on the European patent and new "European Innovation Partnerships", part of the Europe 2020 strategy.

The commissioner also promised to simplify the financial and administrative procedures of the EU's Framework Programmes for Research and Technological Development, and wants better use of EU structural funds.

She said she had the full backing of Barroso to drive innovation forward and establish a European 'i-conomy' in the coming years - putting innovation at the heart of economic growth.