Udoc in English
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THE INNOVATION IMPERATIVE
Innovation Union1, a flagship initiative under the Europe 2020 strategy, is an
integrated innovation strategy built around 34 specific commitments. Based on a
broad concept of innovation, encompassing the private, public and third2 sectors, it
aims at ensuring that innovative ideas are translated into new goods and services that
create growth and jobs.
The first year of Innovation Union has seen the economic and financial crisis
reaching a new phase. The recovery is at risk and public confidence has deteriorated
across different sectors of the economy. The pressure to cut investments in future
sources of economic growth is huge.
At the same time, the shift in economic power from West to East is accelerating.
Both the Innovation Union Scoreboard and the Innovation Union Competitiveness
report3 highlight the fact that Europe’s research and innovation performance has
declined over recent years, causing a broadening of the already sizeable innovation
gap vis-à-vis the US and Japan. Furthermore, China, India and Brazil have started to
rapidly catch up with the EU by improving their performance 7 %, 3 % and 1 %
faster than the EU year on year over the last five years.
This report will argue and show that
– innovation is our best means to help put the European economy back on track
and tackle societal challenges in the global economy; achieving the Innovation
Union objectives, our innovation imperative, has become even more important
and urgent than last year;
– Innovation Union had an impressive start with strong endorsement from the
European Parliament4, the European Council5 and the Competitiveness
Council6;
– Overall, good progress has been made in launching the 34 Innovation Union
commitments. Based on wide-ranging debates with stakeholders, legislative
proposals have been tabled according to plan and pilot actions have been
launched and tested7;