The European Union is struggling to close the innovation gap with the United States and Japan, and is quickly losing ground against Brazil, India and China.
Europe spends just 2% of its gross domestic product on research and development, versus 2.8% in the United States. The EU goal for 2020 is 3%.
Last week, the European Commission released a new innovation scorecard showing positive trends in many member states, but as a group the 27-country bloc is lagging behind. Sweden ranked top, followed by Denmark, Finland and Germany. At the bottom were Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania and Romania.
"What worries me is that innovation is the number one medium- and long-term strategy for Europe to sustain its prosperity," said Ann Mettler, executive director of the Lisbon Council, a think-tank.
"Given the magnitude and importance of innovation, I didn't see the leaders come up with anything that would give me confidence that Europe was going to become more competitive."
EU patent moves forward
However, on Monday 7 February the EU's plan to move forward with a common patent was approved at ambassador level. A controversial attempt to use the bloc's 'enhanced cooperation' procedure to create an EU patent was approved by 25 members, with Italy and Spain voting against.
A single patent is seen as critical for both the Innovation Union, one of the flagships of the EU's 'Europe 2020' strategy, and a fully functioning single market. Currently, European businesses spend more than 10 times what it costs their competitors in the United States and Japan to patent their designs and ideas.
EU education ministers take up the baton on 14 February.
Innovation sidelined
Innovation was supposed to be in the marquee for European Council summits last October and then December, but was ultimately put on February 2011's agenda before being dwarfed by the EU's more ambitious energy goals. In the end, it was eclipsed by violent demonstrations in Egypt and Franco-German plans for a fiscal union.
"We agreed on the conclusions regarding innovation: however, because of the late hour they did not attract much discussion," said German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the end of her press conference.
The highlights from the conclusions included:
- A call for more spending on education, research and technology;
- A European Research Area must be completed by 2014 to create a "genuine single market for knowledge, research and innovation";
- Progress to ensure the creation of the Digital Single Market by 2015, and;
- Lift remaining legal and administrative obstacles to the cross-border operation of venture capital.
A step change?
"A step change in Europe's research and innovation performance is required if we are to achieve a sustainable exit from the crisis, catch up with the US and stay ahead of emerging nations," said Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, EU commissioner for research, innovation and science.
While most of the points in the pre-summit draft conclusions were adopted, in the end EU leaders did not endorse the €10 billion figure for commercial public procurement which had featured in the Innovation Union.
But the Lisbon Council's Mettler said, "there's nothing terribly surprising. Everything passed without much controversy; there was strong endorsement of the Innovation Union, but by the same token there was nothing dramatically new".
