Brussels, 10/06/2014 (Agence Europe) - Euro Commissioner Olli Rehn does not favour the idea of changing the stability and growth pact to boost public investment in research and innovation.
“Simplifying and streamlining the fiscal rules of the stability and growth pact. That's the prevailing tendency for the moment” when it comes to budget policy, said Rehn on Tuesday 10 June as he unveiled a European Commission report on the importance of innovation to stimulate economic growth. Quizzed about the idea of changing the stability and growth pact to encourage public investment in growth, he said: “At the same time, I would not advocate compartmentalisation of the SGP because that would clearly go against the principles of simplification and streamlining”. He recommended that budget consolidation be as growth-favourable as possible, focussing on research and innovation.
Research and Innovation Commissioner Maire Geoghegan-Quinn said that innovation-linked production in the EU accounted for more than a third of the world total but Europe was investing less than 1% of its GDP in this domain (the target is 3%) and seven countries have cut investment in R&D in recent years. She said: “Either we get it right now or we pay the price in the coming years”.
Rather than changing the SGP, the Commission says that member states should carry out reforms in three areas: - improving the definition of strategic priorities and the programming of existing resources; - improving the quality of research and innovation programmes by cutting red tape and allocating resources on a more competitive basis; - and boosting the performance of public research institutes through new partnerships with industry.
Of the 35 commitments made by the member states to make an innovative EU a reality, the Commission says that all bar one have been met (identification of budgets dedicated to launching public procurement in the innovation sector). (MB)