Poland questions merits of EU ‘research target’

Polish politicians are questioning the merits of the EU's aim to increase investment in research and development (R&D) to 3% of GDP in the EU as a whole by 2020, but the issue could at least raise awareness of the fact that the country is lagging behind in innovation. EURACTIV Poland reports.

Poland will have difficulty spending 3% of its GPD on research and development (R&D) as it is only ''among the group of moderate innovators, with an innovation performance considerably below the EU-27 average but an above average rate of improvement,'' according to the European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS) for 2009.

The EIS ranked Poland 29^th out of 35 European countries for innovation. The country only spent 0.56% of its GDP on R&D in 2006 – a fraction of the EU's 3% goal.

Moreover, Poland is way behind many countries in terms of the number of scientific articles appearing in renowned publications and the number of patents submitted, stated Professor Andrzej Wiszniewski from the State Committee for Scientific Research.

Among the countries in the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), Poland has submitted just 0.4% of the total number of patents. On average, the Czech Republic submits twice as many patents as Poland every year, yet only has a population of around 10.5 million, compared to Poland's 38.2 million.

But in fact, the 3% target for investment in R&D is for the EU as a whole. Some older members are near or even above the target, while the newcomers are lagging behind (see Positions).

Polish European Affairs Minister Miko?aj Dowgielewicz called for ''more output, less input'' in the 'Europe 2020' strategy and implied that the new innovation and research strategy had been drafted only for the older EU members. He cited as an example Germany, which has already attained the 3% GDP target for R&D.

He also stressed that the strategy was only at discussion stage and that it could be improved with time.

Another Polish politician, Janusz Lewandowski, who is European commissioner for budget and financial programming, sees the glass as half-full, saying that 'Europe 2020' can meet the needs of all member states if some changes are made.

He also stated that cohesion policy should remain the primary instrument of Europe 2020, echoing views recently expressed by leaders of the Visgrad group of nations (EURACTIV 25/03/10).

Former European Regional Policy Commissioner Danuta Hübner also said that she feared that the new strategy would imply changes to the EU budget, to the detriment of cohesion policy.

Lewandowski was more diplomatic, saying the 3% target did not represent any "danger" for other EU policies. Spending on innovation will be not be used ''instead of agriculture'' but as an ''additional element,'' he stressed.

Polish Vice-Minister for Industry Gra?yna Henclewska recalled that at this point, the European Commission paper was just a draft. The Europe 2020 strategy is ''not an obligatory, binding document, but only a discussed proposition made by the European Commission,'' she said.

Although she sees the goal of spending 3% of Polish GDP on science as too optimistic, Henclewska recognised that it would at least instigate a discussion about the state of research and development in the country.

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