Harbour is the European Parliament's rapporteur on a report on pre-commercial procurement drawn up in the EU assembly's internal market committee. The document encourages public bodies to support innovation by SMEs.
"We invest hundreds of billions of euro in publicly procured projects. Authorities should encourage and fund research and development before they award a contract," the MEP said.
Local governments can fund a range of small businesses to help them develop novel solutions to meet requirements set by funding bodies. Promising proposals can then be funded for a second phase of development.
He cited the example of a Dutch public authority that wanted to improve the way dykes are inspected. It currently carries out the inspections manually.
"The question they asked was 'Can we employ technology to do this?' They put it out as a concept, and had four or five competing suggestions using totally different types of technologies, including aerial mapping and sensors."
"Then they chose a couple of proposals to go to the next stage, and finally selected one. But they put funding into that pre-commercial process," Harbour said.
A number of the responses came from small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Even if they did not win the final contract, several were able to take the technology, develop it and sell it to somebody else.
"Funding an innovative company in that way helps an invention to move forward, even though it may not result in an end product that the public authority wants to use itself," Harbour added.
He said public authorities have a practical role to play on the front-line of governments' actions on big issues, such as climate change and telemedicine.
In a wide-ranging interview, Harbour also expressed concern over the pace that funding for the automotive industry is being released by the European Investment Bank. He also discussed the Conservative Party's platform for the upcoming European elections.
