Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, Commissioner, I would first of all like to thank Commissioner Busquin for launching a broad debate on a European research area. It comes at exactly the right time, between two framework programmes. At present, there is no European research area as such. The research policy of the Member States and that of the Union are running parallel without forming a coherent unit. In addition, we invest far less in research than the United States and Japan. These two factors have caused the chasm between us and the United States to widen even more over the past few years. If the European Union wants to invest in more competitiveness, and thus more employment, we will need an approach which is broader and more innovative than the one we have pursued so far. The forthcoming enlargement of the Union makes this all the more pressing. The European Member States need to leave behind their technological nationalism and strive more towards a European Union for research and technology too. This means that European researchers need access to each other’s national programmes. The European framework programme for research and technological development is a useful instrument for stimulating international cooperation, but this programme on its own is not enough to boost the joint European research efforts. Although it only makes up 6% of total European research expenditure, the framework programme fulfils an important multiplier function, a kind of flywheel function. Industry pays 60% of total investments in research in Europe, 90% of which is spent on research to improve existing production processes and, in this way, to retain the competitive edge. Only 10% is spent on new innovative research. As such, the framework programme certainly makes a considerable contribution to this 10%. Europe has no problem converting euros into research, but has far greater difficulty converting research into euros. It appears that commercialisation, i.e. injecting expertise into a product, seems to be much more successful in the United States than it is in Europe. A better link is required between the development of new technology and application in the market. In this respect, increasing expertise is not a goal in itself, but translating expertise into innovation and industrial success, however, is. It creates employment and prosperity. Universities and companies therefore need to work more closely together. As is the case in the United States, the work of scientists should alternate between academia and industry. Commissioner Busquin has now indicated how a European research area could be brought about. However, he mainly focuses on optimising the infrastructure by, among other things, incorporating centres of excellence into a network and by setting up Virtual Centres. But I believe that in order to bring about a European research area, we will need more than measures in the sphere of infrastructure. Infrastructures do not innovate, neither do electronic networks, although they are a prerequisite. But a European research area can only be created if, in addition to an advanced infrastructure, we also have a European identity and European creativity. In my view, the potential of women has been neglected for too long in this respect. My final point concerns the lack of a Community patent. The existing European patent system causes fragmentation and leads to considerable extra costs. A patent application in Europe is ten times more expensive than it is in the US and far more involved. Not only do we not have a Community patent; the mechanisms to help small companies protect their patents are also lacking. Will the Commissioner consult Mr Bolkestein to do something about this? After all, small- and medium-sized companies do not have the means to pay for expensive legal procedures. Finally, I would like to state that Europe needs a joint research policy which accommodates both applied and fundamental research in various technical specialist fields and which takes into account the fact that innovations often emerge at the interface of different scientific disciplines. In future, new employment could mainly be created within the specialist areas of bio-technology and ICT, but also research into human and social sciences will remain necessary in the European Union, with its large diversity of cultures. I would like to thank my colleagues for their kind cooperation.

Political group: ELDR