Kommissar Figel': EU muss ihr ‚Innovationspotenzial’ ausschöpfen[en] 

Ján Fígel' has been EU commissioner responsible for education, culture, training and youth since November 2004. Until the end of 2006, he also headed the multilingualism portfolio, which was given to Leonard Orban when Romania joined the EU on 1 January 2007 . 

When his home country Slovakia became an EU member in May 2004, Fígel had a short intermezzo as commissioner in charge of enterprise and the information society, sharing the portfolio with today's Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn. 

Beforehand, he served as a member of the Slovakian parliament and a state secretary in the country's foreign ministry.

To read a shortened version of the interview, please click here. 

Europe is facing its worst economic and financial crisis in centuries, with direct effects on its citizens. Against this background, what does the European Commission expect to gain from making 2009 the Year of Innovation and Creativity? 

Your readers are indeed entitled to ask: what has education and culture got to do with the current crisis? I would say this: when we need to find solutions to any problem, there is one important quality that is essential: creativity. We need creativity to find the best answers. Each crisis has unique features, and tailor-made solutions need to be found each time. Creativity is essential for that to happen. 

As the EU charts its way through the turbulent present into an uncertain future, we must enhance our problem-solving capacity, in every age group and in every place in Europe. 

Our main objective for 2009, the European Year of Creativity and Innovation, is to raise awareness of the importance of creativity and innovative capacity for Europeans as individuals, but also for Europe as a whole. We would like to involve all stakeholders – such as national or local governments, professional organisations, NGOs, business companies – who are interested in the success of the European project, in a public debate on how Europeans should change for the EU to remain competitive on the global stage as well as a socially cohesive society, united in its rich diversity. 

What will be the main pillars of the year? Are any special events planned? Will be there a close interaction with Europe’s citizens? 

On 5 December we launched the Year's dedicated website , which will feature news, events and activities and which will be updated regularly throughout year. It will be a space for policy and publicity messages and reports of outcomes of activities, and it offers separate pages for partners of the Year. 

A special section will be dedicated to activities held in member states. The European Commission has set up a forum comprising 'National Coordinators of the Year', which are delegates from each member state who will oversee the activities of the Year in their country. They will regularly meet to report on what arrangements are available to implement the measures. It is still too early to have a list of the activities they are planning for 2009. 

In Brussels, we will be hosting six public debates throughout the Year on key topics on the theme of Creativity and Innovation. These debates will provide a platform for reflection and an exchange of ideas which can contribute to policy discussion on creativity and innovation. They will cover several areas under the creativity and innovation angle, such as cultural diversity, the role of the public sector, the contribution of education and the knowledge society, the issue of sustainable development and the impact of the creative arts and industries. 

I have also invited several well-known personalities to become 'Ambassadors of the Year'. I am pleased that 24 have accepted, and to give you an example, they include Esko Tapani Aho, the former Finish Prime Minister and prominent businessman who is the author of an EU report on innovation. Or: Sir Ken Robinson, a leading world authority in creativity and education, and Jonathan Paul Ive, the chief Apple designer, who is perhaps most closely associated with the iPod. 

But beyond the corporate world, we also have some artists among the ambassadors, such as Radu Mihăileanu, the Romanian-born French film director and screenwriter, and Jordi Savall, the concert performer, teacher and music researcher. The ambassadors will support the Year in their countries and worldwide and participate, whenever possible, in the more visible events. 

At the opening event today, the Vienna Vegetable Orchestra will play on instruments made solely out of vegetables. This is certainly creative but how does it help citizens in the current crisis? It seems there is the risk the year might end up with nice declarations instead of clear action. 

The media launch today is meant to attract the attention of the media, and few would deny that the vegetable orchestra will fail to do so! The vegetable orchestra highlights the element of creativity, which as I have explained above is vital for Europe as we face the challenges of the 21st century. 

I do not share your assertion that the Year will only lead to 'nice declarations', though. The issues of creativity, and of Europe's innovative capacity, go to the core of the Community's long-term strategy to create more and better jobs and growth as a socially cohesive society, so I expect top-level political support for the objectives of the Year from member states and the European Parliament. 

The year also enjoys significant cross-sectoral relevance, involving not only education and culture, but also enterprise, regional and research and development policy, so there is plenty of potential for concrete actions through the Commission's funding programmes in these areas, such as the 7th Framework Programme, the Lifelong Learning Programme or the Structural Funds. 

In general terms, though, what I would like to see at the end of the year is that the citizens of Europe understand better that by promoting human talents and the human capacity to innovate, we can actively shape Europe for the better, to help it fully develop its potential, both economically and socially. 

How closely linked is this project to the new skills initiative? 

In the past twenty years, entirely new sectors of activity have grown from nothing, such as mobile telephony, or web design, for example. Who can predict the jobs that our children will be seeking to do in twenty years' time? Or even in ten years' time? 

Our view is that substantial change will be needed if Europe's education systems are to provide young people with the new skills they will need for the new jobs that will undoubtedly come in future. We propose that the EU's member states should consider cooperation in three key areas: firstly, to give all pupils the competences they need for life; secondly, to provide high-quality learning for every student; and thirdly, to improve the quality of teachers and school staff. 

The European Commission is due to present its 'New Skills for New Jobs' package in mid-December 2008. In it, we will be presenting a comprehensive assessment of the future skills requirements in Europe up to 2020, and will be formulating recommendations on developing the EU's capacity to anticipate and match those future labour market and skills needs. 

Innovation is clearly relevant here, as the constant changes in Europe's labour markets reflect the rapid pace of innovation and technological change. The European Year will clearly complement the discussions on matching skills to future labour market needs, by highlighting the importance of creativity and promoting innovative capacity as key competences for personal, social and economic development. 

The main problem does not seem to be Europeans not being creative enough but administrative hurdles, which still seem to be high. For instance, there is still an ongoing debate about the Community Patent, with member states squabbling about the language issue. Could the year of Innovation and Creativity change something about that? 

By kicking off serious policy debates on the issues of creativity and innovation, we hope to trigger policy reflections in all relevant areas, including issues relating to factors that stifle and hold back Europe's creative potential, such as excessive bureaucracy and red tape. 

How do you see the coming year compared to previous ones? How would you judge their success? 

The EU's thematic years, such as the European Year of Education through Sport 2004, or the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue 2008, have been good tools for raising awareness of topical issues. We hope the same for the 2009 European Year. Each Year is different, though, and success in one is not measured in the same way as success in another. 

Taking the current Year as an example, promoting intercultural dialogue as a tool to help Europeans deal with the increased diversity in our societies is not something that develops overnight! 

The primary aim of the 2008 Year was to raise awareness among civil society and policymakers. It is still a bit too early to measure the results. There will be an external evaluation of the Year and its impacts during 2009, and a full report will be submitted to the Council and European Parliament by December next year. 

But already, we see that the 2008 Year had a visible policy impact: most visibly in the Council of Ministers, which under the Slovenian Presidency, underlined the importance of intercultural competences for everyone, and under the French Presidency emphasised the role that intercultural dialogue should play in the EU's external relations.