Brussels, 10/09/2007 (Agence Europe) - In 2007-13, cohesion policy will increase its support for research and innovation policy. The Commission is currently negotiating EU member states' operational programmes and has estimated that the sum soon to be invested in these two areas is around €80bn. In December the Commission will present a specific communication for presenting a balance sheet for this situation. Regional Policy Commissioner Danuta Hübner announced this news during a joint press conference with Commissioner for Science and Research Janez Potocnik (see other article). Hübner therefore sees a perspective for adopting member states' operational programmes and the “Open Days” in October 2007. She launched some key messages on cohesion and research policy:
1) We must spare no efforts to ensure full use of the opportunities afforded by EU policies in support of research and innovation. Research and innovation activities have to be distributed more fairly and in a more balanced way in the Union. Investment percentages in these two sectors vary considerably from 0.4% of GDP in Cyprus and Romania to 3.9% in Sweden (the EU27 average in 2005 was 1.84%), indicated the commissioner. At regional level the disparities are even more marked: about 50 regions have R&D intensity of more than 2%, whilst 110 regions have less than 1%. The EU cannot afford investment in research and innovation to be limited to a few leading regions. Ms Hübner said: “The EU cannot afford investment in research and innovation to be limited to a few leading regions”;
2) Cohesion policy plays a unique role in less developed regions of the Union. These areas represent less than 20% of participants in the 6th R&D framework programme. The experience demonstrates, however, that the less developed EU regions can also become very competitive in R&D, as is the case of Ireland, noted Commissioner Hübner. She explained that in the long term, cohesion policy was laying the foundations for future participation in European space research and promoting synergy between these two policies;
3) Why has regional policy been so useful in this context? “Because it is unique in its scope”, explained Hübner, who also affirmed that “it is not focused on one single sector, but allows issues related to growth, competitiveness and jobs to be tackled in an integrated way”;
4) Cohesion policy strikes a balance between supporting poles of excellence and fostering capacity of low R&D-intensive areas. In this respect the commissioner highlighted the importance of small universities stimulating the economy of under developed regions, like Scotland, and preventing the brain drain.