Brussels, 02/07/2002 (Agence Europe) - At last week's press conference for presenting the 6th Research Framework Programme, Commissioner Philippe Busquin referred to the lack of public an private investment in Europe. Research and development technology spending was in the range of EUR 288 billion in the USA in 2000 as opposed to only EUR 164 billion in the European Union. The Commissioner pointed out that, "In Euro values at current rates, the gap between the USA and EU widened to EUR 124 billion in 2000". Mr Busquin added that, "At parity, and at constant prices, this gap was more than EUR 100 billion in 2000. In 1994, the gap was EUR 51 billion, but it has constantly increased since then. The trend since the 1990s has got far worse…This trend confirms the importance and urgency of reaching the target agreed by the Barcelona European Council of increasing R&D spending in the EU to near 3% of GDP by 2010".