Brussels, 07/10/2008 (Agence Europe) - Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announced on Thursday 2 October that a European search technology centre was to be set up. The centre will be dedicated to internet search and will be located in three sites in Paris, London and Munich. The announcement was welcomed in Europe since Microsoft is responding to calls from the European Commission for public-private partnerships to attract investors and to boost European research and development (R&D), which only recorded growth of 1.9% of EU GDP in 2007, when the Lisbon strategy agreed a target of 3% by 2010. Ballmer said the centre, whose task was to innovate in terms of internet search, would strengthen the already significant presence of Microsoft in Europe, where it already had 40 research and development centres. The aim is to get to know the European online search market, with all its linguistic diversity. Ballmer said that, in terms of staffing (2,000 people) and investment (over $600 million per year), Europe was his company's second most important region. Although not indicating the amount to be invested in the new centre, he said that “several hundred jobs” would be created in the three countries. “This is a key moment for Microsoft: we are a challenger, not a leader in internet search,” he acknowledged, adding that “search engines are still in their early stages and there is still lots of room for innovation”. Despite failing to land Yahoo!, the American software giant hopes to be able to challenge Google, which holds 70% of the European online search engine market (compared with Microsoft's 9%). With this aim in mind, in Europe Microsoft has acquired UK-based mapping specialist Multimap, German-based price comparison website Ciao and Norwegian search engine Fast. Committed to boosting European research, European Commission President José Manuel Barroso welcomed the announcement. “That a key world player such as Microsoft substantially increases its R&D investment is a real vote of confidence for Europe and European cutting edge research,” he said. (E.H./transl.rt)