To ensure sustainable economic and employment growth, a lucid, highly-targeted innovation policy is crucial.
Growth comes from innovative firms, particularly SMEs.
As we enter the third millennium and Europe's industrial and service sectors face increasingly fierce competition from their traditionally more innovative international rivals, it is vital that policy-makers foster an environment where innovation is encouraged and nurtured. The need to take research out of the laboratory and into the marketplace has never been more pressing, and EU policies and initiatives reflect this accordingly. The link between innovation, growth and employment is a mainstream characteristic of modern and open economies. Furthermore, technological entrepreneurship enhances the competitive base of the economic fabric in our societies by creating new and lasting skilled jobs, mobilising private funding, etc. Although a great many achievements have been realised by European companies, the continuing mixed performance of the Community innovation system is one of the main reasons behind the European economy's lower competitiveness as a whole and, subsequently, of the EU's relative inability, compared to the US, to create new jobs.