Europe will be research hub, say Heads of State
Brussels. Over 50% of economic growth comes from innovation, so innovation is of common interest to all Europeans. It is welcome then that Heads of State at their meeting today (26 March 2004) are pushing to create better conditions for research based companies like those based on biotechnology to flourish in Europe. "But what is needed now is action," says Johan Vanhemelrijck, Secretary General of EuropaBio, the European Association for Bioindustries. "It is four years since Heads of State in their Lisbon Summit pledged to make Europe the world's competitive captain in a super knowledge based economy but since that time, too little progress is felt. Radical measures are needed now to meet the Lisbon objectives."
There is huge potential in biotechnology in healthcare, agriculture and the environment, to meet both the competitiveness goals set out at Lisbon and the environmental sustainability ambitions of Gothenburg. EuropaBio welcomes the declaration by the Heads of State to ensure that public sector investment in R&D attracts matching private funding and to improve the general conditions for R&D investment using targeted support and incentives to encourage greater investment by business. "We would like to see the French initiative on the Young Innovative Company status being installed in other Member States, which would help make Europe one of the best places to invest and grow a company," says Johan Vanhemelrijck.
"Today's summit conclusions will be really valuable if the Competitiveness Council in May takes them up and leads the way forward on biotechnology when Ministers will discuss the Commission's progress report, " says Feike Sijbesma, Chairman of EuropaBio. EuropaBio hopes that the Competitiveness Ministers will show political leadership both at EU level and in the Member States to support an industry that matches economic growth, improves quality of life and a high level of environmental protection at the same time.
EuropaBio welcomes the appointment of an independent high level group to carry out a review of EU economies and how they are to achieve the Lisbon agenda. "This should help provide reliable information in the decision-making process and encourage Ministers to show leadership in adopting concrete and measureable actions in support of innovation, like urgently addressing the use of biotechnology in agriculture, ensuring equitable access to innovation in human health and agreeing to a Community Patent system," says Johan Vanhemelrijck. "This is the way we can also stop the brain drain and the entrepreneur drain in our sector."
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