Brussels, 02/11/2005 (Agence Europe) - Whilst the Heads of State and Government of the Union were underlining the importance of supporting innovation at Hampton Court last Thursday, in their discussions on the challenges of globalisation (EUROPE 9059), the Annual Forum of the European Investment Bank (EIB), which was held on 27 and 28 October in Helsinki, devoted its work to the Lisbon strategy and, in particular, research and development (R&D). "The creation of a more innovative Europe is not solely a question of financial resources, it is also a question of organisation and micro-economic reforms", said the president of the EIB, Philippe Maystadt, in his opening speech to the annual Forum, which was attended by Commissioners Günter Verheugen (Industry) and Janez Potocnik (Research). Amongst other things, Mr Maystadt stressed the need to reinforce competition between European universities, to protect the results of European research with a European patent and to remove obstacles for non-European researchers to come to Community territory, and to remove obstacles to their work. In a short overview, Mr Maystadt pointed out that within the framework of the Lisbon strategy, the EIB has committed to lend 50 billion EUR over the decade 2000-2010 to support R&D and innovation, training and human capital, and information and communication technologies.
According to the Financial Times, the EIB is very much inclined to increase its loans destined for the most promising and highest-risk research and development projects to a level of 10 billion EUR, which may help to make nearly 20 billion in additional funding available from the private sector to encourage innovation.