EN Official Journal of the European Union CE 78/186

(2004/C 78 E/0193)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2907/03

by Antonios Trakatellis (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(1 October 2003)

Subject: Expenditure on and structural indicators for research and innovation in the EU and Greece

One of the objectives set out in the conclusions to the European Council meeting in Barcelona in March 2002 was that overall spending on R & D and innovation in the Union should be increased with the aim of approaching 3 % of GDP by 2010. It was made clear that two-thirds of this new investment should come from the private sector (1). At the present time, the average level of investment in research in the EU totals 1,9 % of GDP and to reach the 3 % target requires an annual increase of 8 %. Given that the gap between the Union and its more serious competitors is constantly widening, the Union should concentrate all its efforts on R & D and innovation, with particular emphasis on frontier technologies, to achieve the target of 3 % of GDP by 2010.

1. What is the level of investment in research as a whole in the Union and separately for each Member State and what is the percentage increase or decrease in that figure for each Member State separately according to the latest available data?

2. What research funding is invested in Greece, broken down by source separately for the private sector, national public participation and Community initiatives and programmes in the field of research, and what measures will the Commission take to deliver statistics on a regular basis and within specified deadlines in accordance with Decision 1608/2003/EC (2)?

3. On how many, and which, of each of the 16 structural indicators under the Lisbon Strategy (e.g. percentage of GDP by source of funds spent on R & D, patents, etc.) relating to Innovation and Research (II) is Greece behind or ahead of the Community average?

4. Is there a need to revise the Commission's approach to the ‘open coordinating method’, which is not binding on the Member States and ineffective but was adopted by the European Council to achieve the target of 3 % of GDP by 2010, and what measures will the Commission take to encourage links between research and new business opportunities?

Answer given by Mr Busquin on behalf of the Commission

(14 November 2003)

1. The figures available concerning investment in research and development (R & D) relate to 2000 or 2001 in all the Member States, with the exception of Greece, where the latest statistics date from 1999. A table will be forwarded directly to the Honourable Member and to Parliament's Secretariat. While investment was increasing everywhere, the rates of growth differed, ranging from more than 7 % in Belgium, Denmark and Ireland to less than 1 % in Germany. The data already available for 2002 show that investment is decreasing in France, Portugal and the United Kingdom. A table (2) will be forwarded directly to the Honourable Member and to Parliament's secretariat.

2. The breakdown by funding sources for R & D differs in Greece, in both nature and structure, compared with the rest of the Community. Funding by the private sector is twice as low while that from non-national sources is four times as high, notably from the contribution made by the Community Research Framework Programme. A table (3) will be forwarded directly to the Honourable Member and to Parliament's Secretariat. Indicators for following progress in achieving the 3 % target defined in the Commission's action plan ‘Investing in research’ can all be calculated from the scientific and technological (S & T) data which Eurostat collects from the Member States, using procedures which are being reviewed in implementation of Decision No 1608/2003/EC (3).

3. Greece is lagging significantly behind for nine of the 16 structural indicators for research and innovation and is doing as well as, or better than, the European average for four of the indicators, while information is unavailable for three others. A table (4) will be forwarded directly to the Honourable Member and to Parliament's Secretariat.

4. The Commission's action plan ‘Investing in research’ proposes a coherent series of measures to increase private sector investment in R & D. Measures for which the Member States are competent (more than half of the total) will be implemented through the open coordination method as defined by the European Council. For the Commission, this means setting up an appropriate framework to facilitate mutual learning between Member States and, where applicable, their developing together new measures on the following six themes: ‘human resources’; ‘the public research base and its links to industry’; ‘small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and research’; ‘fiscal measures to promote research’; ‘intellectual property rights and research’ and ‘public funding for research and the policy mix’. Progress will be monitored annually. The ‘Action Plan for Innovation’ which the Commission is planning to launch in the first half of 2004 will help, in addition, to strengthen innovation in companies by adopting a broader and more business-oriented outlook which will place greater emphasis on the non-technological, organisational and marketing aspects of innovation.

(1) http://europa.eu.int/comm/barcelona_council/index_en.html.

(2) OJ L 230, 16.9.2003, p. 1.

(3) Decision No 1608/2003/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 July 2003 concerning the production and development of Community statistics on science and technology.