Irish Regions Office Website

March 19, 2010

Joining up EU Regional and Innovation Policy

After the launch of the 'Europe 2020' Strategy for sustainable growth and jobs, the European Commissioners for Innovation and Regional Policy have each called for an end to fragmentation and wasteful duplication of effort and spending between their two policy fields.

At the Week of Innovative Regions in Europe, in Granada on 14 March, Maire Geoghegan-Quinn and her colleague Johannes Hahn outlined ways their respective Directorates-General could better work together to improve the innovation output of Europe's regions and reduce overlap between their services. A joint communication to ''better align Cohesion Policy with the Europe 2020 strategy'' is expected in the second half of the year.

Among the initial coordination measures being proposed are enhanced formal contact mechanisms between Managing Authorities for Structural Fund Programmes and national contact points for the Seventh Framework Programme for Research & Development as well as the Enterprise Europe Network services in regional cities. The Lisbon Council think-tank for Economic Competitiveness and Social Renewal has also suggested incentivising regions which perform well in research and innovation terms by providIng access to additional funding or ''at the very least'' greater recognition by the responsible EU authorities.

Arguing in favour of the credentials of Regional Policy as a coherent multi-level framework by which to implement innovation actions, Commissioner Hahn emphasised that interaction among competing companies, suppliers and different sectors based on ''geographic proximity and an eco-system that allows new ideas to emerge'' were vital characteristic of successful innovation. He also stressed the proven capacity and wider potential of the regional level for managing ''the availability of finance, creative and well-educated human resources, an innovation-friendly market and, most importantly, entrepreneurial spirit''. In achieving this objective, the Commissioner expressed the wish that the EU should work with regions to identify their existing strengths and how to make best use of their comparative advantages.
Meanwhile, speaking at the same event, Spanish Minister of Science and Innovation, Cristina Garmendia, commented that European science policy ''cannot progress without the involvement of regional and local government''. The Minister underlined her intention to put recommendations on the EU political agenda during the current Spanish Presidency of the Council wherebyt the Union, Member States and the sub-national level should develop measures to improve coordination between the various instruments for promoting research and innovation, with particular emphasis on the power of the regions.

Hahn speech
Garmendia comments

Posted by iroronan at March 19, 2010 10:25 AM