Brussels, 27/04/2001 (Agence Europe) - European companies have good results in the innovation field but are unable to turn them to good account, noted the European Commission with the publication of its report on Thursday entitled: "Building an Innovative Economy in Europe". The report summarises the results of around twelve studies launched by the Commission in the field of innovation and observes that, in order to compete with their rivals in the electronic economy, European companies must make an additional effort. The report considers that innovation will become unavoidable in the 21st century and "will be at the heart of any enterprise and successful industrial policy". It deplores, however, the fact that it is "unequally distributed", mainly because of the lack of internal resources, institutional obstacles and unequal costs: thus, 49% of SMEs geared to technology would hesitate to invest because of the cost involved. The report encourages companies of every sector of activity to become more innovative, and not just in the target sectors such as biotechnology or information technology. It notes the appearance of a "European Innovation Area", but states there is still a great deal to be done on the Old Continent, whereas, in the United states, preference is given to research compared to the EU. Between 1990 and 1995, for example, 53.1% of patents from research activities by European companies outside their countries of origin were deposited by the United States, while only 40.1% were submitted by Europe.
The report is available at http: //http://www.cordis.lu/innovation-smes/src/studies.htm .