Euroabstracts : a review of European innovation and enterprise. Vol 44, 5/2006, October 2006.
Date: 2006-10-25
Institutions: Directorate-General for Enterprise and Industry
Subjects: serial publication, type of business

euroabstracts

 A review of European innovation and enterprise

October 2006  Vol 44 – 5/2006

Space: 
taking innovation to new heights

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Innovation in services 

Financing SME growth 

Europeans and biotechnology

 European Commission
Directorate-General for Enterprise and Industry

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CONTENTS

 EDITORIAL

Making space for 

European innovation

Outer space has long been the domain of the cosmologist, the 
scientist, the writer, the artist and even the spiritualist. In recent 
decades,  it  has  also  increasingly  entered  the  entrepreneur’s 
sphere  of  interest.  As  our  understanding  and  capabilities  in 
space  expand,  society  is  likely  to  reap  the  earthly  delights  of 
new applications and technologies.

In  this  issue’s  special  feature,  Euroabstracts  explores  the  frontier 
where space, innovation and enterprise converge. It delves into 
the  three  main  pillars  of  European  space  policy  and  how  they 
are evolving, and examines the Union’s plans for an integrated 
space programme. The magazine interviews András Roboz, the 
new head of unit dealing with space policy and coordination at 
the Enterprise and Industry DG, to get the inside track.

From  the  spatial,  the  magazine  moves  to  the  global  and 
investigates how the internationalisation of R&D is affecting the 
innovativeness and competitiveness of European corporations. It 
also explores how alternative investments can spark innovation 
among start-ups.

Two  separate  reviews  look  into  European  biotechnology:  one 
examines the perceptions of European citizens towards this high-
tech sector and the other considers its global competitiveness. 
Also  in  the  area  of  biotech,  Euroabstracts  analyses  a  report  on 
how much renewable bio-energy Europe can produce without 
harming the environment.

On  the  policy  front,  a  new  Commission  Communication 
proposes ways of ﬁ nancing SME growth within the context of 
the Lisbon Strategy.

Space:  taking innovation 

to new heights – page 8

INNOVATION TRENDS

Entering the hidden dimension 
The gains and pains of R&D internationalisation 
Private equity, public policies 

FEATURE

Bringing space down to Earth 
Space: taking innovation to new heights 

KNOWLEDGE SOCIETY

New channels for e-communications policy 
Short of money but not ideas 

COMPETITIVENESS

Securing the future for investment funds 
Fuelling SMEs on the road to Lisbon 
The transatlantic equity gap 

ENVIRONMENT

Taking the sting out of energy’s tail 
How much does bio-energy protect the environment? 
The heat is on 

TECHNOLOGY

Europeans warm to biotechnology 
Exploring the wireless world with a safety net 
Making the information society a safer place to be 

IN BRIEF
  Short reviews 

BOOKMARKS
  Further surﬁ ng: Space in cyberspace 

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 euroabstracts
 Euroabstracts is published six times a year in English by the European Commission’s Enterprise and Industry DG, 
as a part of the European Community’s Sixth Research Framework Programme.

Published by:
Communication and Information Unit
Enterprise and Industry DG, 
European Commission
BREY 05/216
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Fax: +32 2 292 1788 
entr-euroabstracts@ec.europa.eu

Written and produced by: 
ESN, Brussels

Subscription form 
Please  ﬁ ll  out  the  request  form  on  the  back  page  and  fax  or  post 
it  back  to  the  Enterprise  and  Industry  DG  or  use  the  electronic 
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Legal notice:
Neither the European Commission nor any person acting on its behalf 
may be held responsible for the use to which  information contained 
in this publication may be put, nor for any errors which may appear 
despite careful preparation and checking. This publication does not 
necessarily reﬂ ect the view or the position of the Commission.

Luxembourg:  Ofﬁ ce  for  Ofﬁ cial  Publications  of  the  European 
 Communities, 2006
© European Communities, 2006
Reproduction is authorised, provided the source is acknowledged

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INNOVATION IN SERVICES

INNOVATION TRENDS

Entering the hidden 

dimension

as  companies  grow,  they  are  more  likely  to  innovate.  What’s 
more, those that look to grow substantially are more likely to be 
even more innovative. Related to this, companies with a wide 
geographical spread in their business activity are also more likely 
to seek to innovate. 

Interestingly,  there  was  a  disparity  between  the  United  States 
and  Europe  with  regard  to  companies’  views  on  innovation. 
Euro peans were more positive than their US counterparts about 
their level of innovativeness. Competition is an innovation driver, 
too, but not as one might expect: the survey identiﬁ ed that the 
quality of competition rather than the quantity was more likely 
to affect the level of innovation in a business.  

The survey also looked at the barriers to innovation. Here there 
were signiﬁ cant sectoral variations. Customers who are not pre-
pared to pay for novel or innovative services; an overly burden-
some  regulatory  framework;  human  resource  and  training 
issues (in some sectors over others) were all cited as impediments 
to  innovation.  Intriguingly,  Europeans  seem  to  rate  barriers  to 
innovation in services as a much bigger problem than their US 
counterparts, which might be the result of an overly restrictive 
business environment, the survey suggests.

In policy terms, the survey identiﬁ es the lack of accurate data as 
the biggest obstruction to a greater understanding of innovation 
in services, particularly in the non-technological innovation sec-
tors.  In  the  more  knowledge-based  and  innovation-intensive 
services, the report calls for the Commission to monitor the situ-
ation with regard to the protection of intellectual property.

The  report  was  compiled  as  a  ‘Study  on  innovation  matters 
related  to  the  implementation  of  the  Community  Innovation 
and  SMEs  programme  of  the  Fifth  Framework  Programme  for 
Research and Development’(3).

(1) http://cordis.europa.eu/innovation/en/policy/innobarometer.htm
(2) http://cordis.europa.eu/innovation/en/policy/cis.htm
(3) http://cordis.europa.eu/innovation-smes/

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Innovation  in  Europe’s  dynamic  service  sector  is  a  “hidden 
dimension” which is playing an increasing role in stimulating 
change and supporting growth in the European economy, a 
recent study reveals.

As well as being responsible for two-thirds of employment and 
gross  domestic  product  (GDP)  in  the  European  economy,  the 
service sector accounts for an increasing share of overall research 
and development, patenting and trademark activity. According 
to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the 
EU  average  for  the  share  of  services  in  business  R&D  expend-
iture had risen to 13% by 2001. 

To  ﬁ nd  out  more  about  Europe’s  dynamic  service  sector,  this 
study  examined  three  existing  surveys  covering  the  issue  of 
innovation and services: the Innobarometer Survey(1); the Euro-
pean  Community  Innovation  Survey  (CIS),  which  is  the  EU’s 
main  statistical  innovation  monitoring  instrument(2);  and  the 
‘Four Sectors’ survey (a special survey carried out speciﬁ cally for 
the report).

The study attempts to cover the broad diversity of the operating 
conditions of the services sector with regard to innovation. The 
ﬁ ndings show that not only is there a lot of innovation going on 
in services, but that there is a great deal of variety of innovation 
within services, not just between different sectors, but also with-
in the same sectors.

Sizing up the competition

But  what  drives  this  innovation?  While  the  study  found  ‘trad-
itional’  “CIS-type”  innovation,  there  was  also  a  signiﬁ cant 
amount of less tangible innovating activities. Size is a factor and, 

Innovation in services: issues at stake and trends
ISBN 92-894-9738-6 
European Commission, Brussels, 2006
English, 119 pp, free of charge
Download: http://bookshop.eu.int/eubookshop/FileCache/
PUBPDF/NB6805252ENC/NB6805252ENC_002.pdf

Sticking together in an innovative Europe

The EU’s 2007-2013 Financial Perspectives provided the basis for EU Member States to 
prepare new cohesion programmes and to implement the Lisbon Strategy more efﬁ cient-
ly. This is the fourth progress report released by the Commission in the framework of the 
Growth and Jobs Strategy and the reform of the European Cohesion Policy. It describes 
the trends and disparities between the EU Member States and regions, and outlines the 
key policy developments, including the agreement on the resources for cohesion policy 
for the next seven years.

Communication from the Commission – the 
Growth and Jobs Strategy and the reform of 
European cohesion policy – fourth progress 
report on cohesion 
COM(2006) 281
European Commission, Brussels, 2006
English, French, German, 13 pp, free of charge
Download: http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/
sources/docofﬁ c/ofﬁ cial/reports/pdf/interim4/
4inter_en.pdf

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INNOVATION TRENDS

R&D POLICY

The gains and pains of 
R&D internationalisation

Although  discourse  on 
globalisation  has 
fo-
cused largely on the loss 
of  manufacturing  jobs, 
the  process  is  starting 
to  transform  corporate 
R&D.  This  report  exam-
ines  the  impact  on  Swe-
den and provides lessons 
for  policy-makers  across 
Europe.

A change of mindset

Although  this  process  of  internationalisation  is  general  in  its 
scope,  it  is  most  advanced  in  the  pharmaceuticals  and  tele-
communications sectors, with companies such as Ericsson and 
AstraZeneca  establishing  R&D  facilities  at  numerous  locations 
worldwide. This profound transformation has led to a change of 
mindset among policy-makers across the EU. Instead of support-
ing R&D and innovation at ‘their’ companies, they now attempt 
to make their country the best place for ﬁ rms from around the 
world to innovate and perform R&D. 

In  a  knowledge-based 
economy,  few  issues  are 
more  central  to  the  fu-
ture economic well-being 
of a nation than the level 
and quality of its research 
and  development.  The 
transfer  of  manufactur-
ing  jobs  to  lower-wage 
economies  may  have 
damaged some communities, but has done little to challenge 
the pre-eminence of the triad of economic giants – Europe, 
the US and Japan. 

As this process is still in its infancy, even in a research-intensive 
country such as Sweden, it is not possible to state categorically 
what  the  exact  effect  will  be  on  Europe.  Optimists  will  focus 
on the inﬂ ow of foreign investment, which may create knock-
on beneﬁ ts for local companies. The internationalisation of R&D 
may also boost the competitiveness of European companies by 
allowing them to innovate at lower costs. Conversely, increased 
R&D investment in foreign countries could undermine domestic 
innovation systems and strike at the heart of the economy. For-
eign ownership may also reduce national control over domestic 
R&D. Multinational companies under competitive pressure may 
close  their  facilities  in  Europe,  especially  if  they  have  acquired 
them through M&A activity.

However,  the  globalisation  of  corporate  R&D  creates  the 
potential  for  a  reordering  of  the  economic  structure  that 
could  have  a  profound  effect  on  the  centrality  of  leading 
European  nations  and  the  region  as  a  whole.  So  far,  the 
internationalisation  of  research  has  developed  at  a  slower 
pace than that of manufacturing, but the trend is still clear 
and is gathering pace. 

Which of these scenarios turns out to be correct will be deter-
mined by European policy-makers and their success in ensur-
ing that the region is focused on the competitive challenges 
that  it  faces  in  attracting  R&D.  Despite  the  legitimate  con-
cerns triggered by the internationalisation of corporate R&D, 
attempting  to  hold  back  the  tide  of  globalisation  is  simply 
not an option.

Although  this  study  focuses  primarily  on  Sweden,  it  shines  a 
light  on  possible  developments  across  the  whole  of  the  EU. 
In less than ten years, the percentage of major Swedish com-
panies carrying out R&D abroad has doubled to 40%. In part, 
this surge has been driven by mergers and acquisitions (M&A), 
but the need to adapt to local markets and reach out globally 
for knowledge, technologies and talent is also playing a role. 
Most of the internationalisation of R&D has involved networks 
within  the  triad,  but  more  recently  a  number  of  developing 
nations, particularly China and India, have seen a dramatic rise 
in inward investment. 

The internationalisation of corporate R&D: leveraging the changing 
geography of innovation
ISSN 1652-0483
Swedish Institute for Growth Policy Studies, Stockholm, 2006
English and Swedish, 327 pp, free of charge
Download: www.itps.se/Archive/Documents/Swedish/
Publikationer/Rapporter/Allmänna/A2006/A2006_007.pdf 

Rethinking Lisbon 

At the Lisbon Summit in March 2000, EU leaders agreed on an agenda for making Europe 
the most competitive economy in the world. However, the experience of the ﬁ ve years 
that followed Lisbon proved that the agenda was overambitious. This book attempts to 
propose ways of redirecting the Lisbon goals in order to respond to the needs of Euro-
pean citizens, to fuel growth and to stimulate the employment market.

Lisbon: ﬁ ve years later. What future for European 
employment and growth?
ISBN 07-53-02031-9
Centre for Economic Performance, London, 2006 
English, 20 pp, free of charge
Download: http://cep.lse.ac.uk/pubs/
download/occasional/OP020.pdf 

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ALTERNATIVE INVESTMENT

INNOVATION TRENDS

Private equity, 

public policies

Member States, as national regimes are a patchwork of differ-
ent regulations and rules. Fund structuring is one priority area 
where the industry wants to be able to invest on a cross-border 
basis in the EU, in the same way as public equity investments. 

The  group  calls  for  EU  institutions  and  Member  States  to  help 
establish a better understanding of the “private placement”, the 
placement  of  private  equity  investments  with  other  professional 
investors  in  other  EU  Member  States.  This  is  not  to  say  that  the 
private equity industry wants new and draconian laws from the EU. 
Throughout the report, the group calls for a sympathetic and con-
sistent “light touch” which respects the unique culture of private 
equity investment, while using it to its own economic advantage.

The  second  Alternative  Investment  Expert  report  –  Managing, 
servicing  and  marketing  hedge  funds  in  Europe  –  covers  much 
of the same ground as the private equity report. The group is 
proposing that hedge funds (worth just under €1 trillion world-
wide) be considered – as they increasingly are by institutional 
investors – as part of a legitimate investment strategy. 

Many Member States have apparently increased their regulatory 
engagement with hedge fund businesses (traditionally less con-
ventional investments) and the group suggests that this should 
be taken further. However, the experts are careful to recommend 
a policy of “enlightened self-interest” for Europe’s policy-mak-
ers, being careful not to try and over-regulate an industry that 
might be driven offshore or repackaged in a different form. 

The two reports are open for public consultation. The Commission 
plans to publish the results of this process in November 2006.

Report of the Alternative Investment Expert Group: developing 
European private equity
European Commission, Internal Market and Services DG, Brussels, 2006
English, 36 pp, free of charge
Download: http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/securities/
docs/ucits/reports/equity_en.pdf  

Report of the Alternative Investment Expert Group: Managing, 
Servicing and Marketing Hedge Funds in Europe
European Commission, Internal Market and Services DG, Brussels, 2006
English, 38 pp, free of charge
Download: http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/securities/docs/
ucits/reports/hedgefunds_en.pdf

Hedge funds and venture capital ﬁ nancing are both crucial 
forms  of  alternative  funding  for  start-ups  and  innovative 
SMEs.  In  response  to  the  strong  growth  of  the  alternative 
investment market, the Alternative Investment Expert Group 
has published two reports. These reports – and the reaction 
by stakeholders to them – will be used to improve the effect-
iveness of the current framework for investment funds.

Broadly  speaking,  private  equity  refers  to  equity  investments 
which are not freely tradable on public stock markets. The pri-
vate  equity  industry,  according  to  the  report  Developing  Euro-
pean private equity, could play a bigger role in mobilising private 
investment  capital  and  helping  regenerate  economies.  How-
ever, this potential needs to be harnessed more. In practice, this 
means gaining a greater understanding at both EU and Member 
State level of how the private equity industry is organised and 
how it can be engaged more effectively.

The report calls for policies that are friendlier to private equity 
(for  example,  buy-out,  business  angels  and  venture  capital  ﬁ -
nancing), recognising that each can make a valuable contribu-
tion  to  the  economy.  There  is  a  need  for  an  improvement  in 
the  regulatory  and  business  environment  for  private  equity  in 
the EU, especially if Europe is to compete with more successful 
private equity markets, such as the United States. Action should 
be focused ﬁ rstly at local or national level, as this is where the 
core policies operate and where the systems are most structur-
ally challenged. This ought also to include the sharing of best 
practice between Member States.

European ‘light touch’

The group of experts calls for European policy-makers to con-
sider private equity when reviewing or drafting legislation. The 
challenge for them will be to develop a better approach to the 
taxation  and  supervision  of  private  equity  businesses  in  other 

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FEATURE

INTERVIEW: ANDRÁS ROBOZ 

Bringing space down t

Euroabstracts 
talks 
to  András  Roboz  – 
the new head of unit 
dealing  with  space 
policy  and  coordina-
tion at the Enterprise 
and Industry DG – to 
chart  the  EU’s  efforts 
to  bring  European 
space policy down to 
Earth  and  maximise 
its  societal  and  eco-
nomic beneﬁ ts.

How are the main pillars of EU space policy divided?

First of all, European Space Policy is driven by different actors. 
The European Space Agency’s (ESA) main role is to develop space 
technologies and to pursue space-based scientiﬁ c research and 
space exploration. The EU’s interests in space focus primarily on 
space applications and the way these can help us to achieve our 
policy objectives. There are three main domains for space appli-
cations: telecommunications, navigation and observation. Here 
at DG Enterprise, we are in charge of the deﬁ nition of an overall 
European space policy, together with ESA and the respective EU 
and ESA Member States. We also manage the development of 
GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security) as the 
Commission’s second major space application, after the Galileo 
global satellite navigation system.

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Galileo satellite system

How do you coordinate policy?

As far as our co-operation with ESA is concerned, coordination 
mechanisms  are  rather  well  established.  The  Space  Council, 
bringing  together  ministers  from  both  ESA  and  EU  Member 
States,  forms  the  platform  to  come  to  important  policy  deci-
sions. Co-operation on a more regular basis is ensured via a High 
Level Space Policy Group, the work of which is prepared by a 
joint EU/ESA Secretariat. As far as coordination of space activi-
ties within the Commission is concerned, we have an in-house 
Space Task Force which brings together all Commission services 
interested  or  involved  in  space  policy  and  space  applications. 
This  includes  policy  areas  such  as  environmental,  agricultural, 
telecommunications, transport, and external relations. The Task 
Force develops common positions on cross-cutting issues. This 
is particularly crucial when it comes to international co-opera-
tion. And ﬁ nally, we invited colleagues from other Directorate-
Generals, the Joint Research Centre and Member States to work 
with us in the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security 
(GMES) Bureau recently created here in DG Enterprise and In-
dustry. The Bureau’s main responsibility is to ensure that a ﬁ rst 
set of GMES services is operational by 2008.

What are the potential payoffs of Earth monitoring and observa-
tion?

As the GMES initiative demonstrates, Earth observation has a lot 
of actual and potential applications. The most important future 
applications will be in the sphere of the environment and secu-
rity.  This  includes  monitoring 
for  ﬂ ooding  and  other  natu-
ral  and  man-made  disasters. 
Among  other  things,  this  re-
quires a combination of space 
monitoring  and  in  situ  obser-
vations on the ground. GMES 
can  also  help  coordinate  and 
guide humanitarian responses 
to unfolding catastrophes.

How will the forthcoming Sev-
enth  Framework  Programme 
for  Research  (FP7)  contribute 
to the EU’s space ambitions?

The Framework Programme in-
troduces a clear focus on space 
under the €2.9-billion Securi-
ty and Space thematic priority 
of  FP7’s  Co-operation  pro-
gramme.  Space  alone  will 
receive  more  than  €1.4  bil-
and 
lion  between  2007 
2013,  of  which  some  85% 

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INTERVIEW: ANDRÁS ROBOZ

FEATURE

n to Earth

Is there anything major in the European space policy pipeline?

In  early  2007,  we  are  planning  to  release  a  comprehensive 
European Space Policy document which will bring together the 
views and aspirations of the different space policy players – the 
EU, the ESA and Member States. It will provide the central strat-
egy for space policy in Europe for the coming years and will set 
the political priorities for the future.

The High Level Space Group is currently exploring the different 
elements of the European Space Policy and its strategic objec-
tives. The group’s deliberations will feed into the policy docu-
ment. The Communication will be formally presented to Mem-
ber States at the Space Council in May 2007 under the German 
Presidency.

EU space policy milestones

Past milestones

1999 –  Commission working document entitled ‘Towards 
a coherent European approach for space’ 
 http://ec.europa.eu/comm/space/doc_pdf/
keydocs-coherent-sec789_en.pdf

2000 –  European Parliament resolution on Commission’s 

communication and requesting a Green Paper
 http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/site/en/
oj/2001/c_059/c_05920010223en02480250.pdf

2003 –  Green Paper on European Space Policy 

 http://ec.europa.eu/comm/space/doc_pdf/
greenpaper_en.pdf

2003 –  White Paper on Space 

 http://ec.europa.eu/comm/space/whitepaper/
pdf/whitepaper_en.pdf
2003 – ESA-EC Framework Agreement
2003 –  Space  mentioned  in  the  draft  of  the  European 

Constitutional Treaty 
 http://european-convention.eu.int/bienvenue.
asp?lang=EN

2004 –  EU  Space  Council  grouping  European  Commis-
sion, ESA and European ministers from concerned 
ministries

Future milestones

2007-2013 –  Space  becomes  a  research  priority  of 
the  Seventh  Framework  Programme  for 
Research

2008 – The ﬁ rst three services of GMES are operational
2010 – Galileo becomes operational

will  go  to  GMES  applications.  Other  themes  of  FP7  are  also 
expected  to  contribute  to  ﬁ nancing  space-related  activities 
(i.e. transport, environment, research infrastructure, security).

How  important  is  international  co-operation  to  the  EU’s  space 
strategy?

International  co-operation  is  very  important  to  the  EU,  and  in 
particular  collaboration  with  other  space  powers,  such  as  the 
USA, Russia and China. But this has to be balanced against com-
petitive considerations – which can be a delicate undertaking.  
Satellites by their very nature provide global information. Costs 
and  beneﬁ ts  can  be  shared  internationally  –  weather  satellites 
are  a  particularly  good  example  of  this.  In  navigation,  Galileo 
user equipment will be interoperable with the American defence 
navigation system GPS, providing better services for users. But 
the  markets  for  communications  satellites,  both  the  manufac-
turing and the services they provide, are intensely competitive. 
However,  we  still  believe  the  value  added  that  can  stem  from 
international co-operation far outweighs its risks, and we cannot 
afford not to engage our main partners.

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FEATURE

SPACE POLICY

Space: taking innovation t

Space is an exciting place. It is also at the innovation and sci-
ence frontier, with new space-related breakthroughs occurring 
regularly. Given the communication and observation applica-
tions of space technology, it is an area of crucial importance, 
both socially and economically, right here on Earth. This spe-
cial feature of Euroabstracts focuses on how Europe’s space 
policy is evolving to meet the terrestrial needs of its citizens.

Ever since humans learnt to gaze up at the sky, the endless ex-
panses  of  space  have  thrilled  and  mystiﬁ ed  us.  When  people 
hear  the  word  ‘space’,  that  same  sense  of  wonder  evokes  im-
ages of buccaneering explorers pushing back the ‘ﬁ nal frontier’, 
as  it  is  popularly  known  in  science  ﬁ ction  lore.  Astronauts  on 
the moon, space walks, unmanned planetary landings, robotic 
probes to distant corners of the solar system and other parts of 
the galaxy, and even close encounters with high-speed comets 
have all been achieved successfully. 

Space  exploration,  costly  as  it  is,  is  important  in  helping  to 
bolster  our  understanding  of  the  universe  in  which  we  exist. 
It has made us aware of the inhospitability of the Venusian at-
mosphere and is helping us to penetrate the mist surrounding 
the tantalising question of whether or not there is any water on 
or under the surface of Mars. In July 2005, the High Resolution 
Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board the European Space Agency’s 
Mars Express spacecraft captured an image of a patch of water 
ice sitting on the ﬂ oor of an unnamed crater near the Martian 
north pole (see image).

Our discoveries in recent decades have even forced us to rethink 
how we view some of the most familiar objects in space, such 
as planets. 

Down to Earth pursuits

Europe  was  never  really  a  major  player  in  the  so-called  ‘space 
race’ between the United States and the Soviet Union in which 
each of the ‘cold war’ superpowers vied for ascendancy in space 
for a mixture of strategic and military objectives, as well as na-
tional prestige.

In the post-space race era, however, Europe has emerged as a 
major  player  in  the  space  stakes.  This  is  partly  due  to  the  dif-
ﬁ culties  faced  by  the  Americans  and  especially  the  Russians  in 
sustaining their massive space programmes, as well as the shift-
ing priorities of space policy.

Although Europe values and carries out space exploration, it re-
gards  the  more  applied  aspects  of  space,  i.e.  those  that  hold 
the maximum beneﬁ t for citizens, to be most important. In ad-
dition, Europe has taken advantage of the thaw in cold war at-
titudes to space research as being a matter of national security 
to become a leading advocate of international co-operation in 
expensive, high-risk projects (see box on INCO). 

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Europeans  seem  to  get  a  lot  of  value  for  money  out  of  their 
space investments. Per capita, European citizens, through their 
taxes, spend about the price of a cinema ticket, which is a tenth 
of what the United States pumps into its space programme per 
capita.

In fact, although the ESA conducts a fair amount of space ex-
ploration,  the  European  Union  focuses  more  on  the  applied 
side. The two ﬂ agships of EU space policy are: global navigation 
(GALILEO) and Earth observation (GMES).

As  a  reﬂ ection  of  the  more  applied  focus  of  EU-backed  space 
research, Commission President José Manuel Barroso transferred 
the space portfolio from the Research DG to the Enterprise and 
Industry DG in 2005.

Space and FP7
Space has been an integral and major component of EU-
funded  research  since  the  Sixth  Framework  Programme 
for Research (2002-2006). Under FP7, it has been coupled 
with security to form a research priority under the Co-op-
eration programme.

Together, space and security will receive around €2.7 billion 
under  FP7.  More  than  four-ﬁ fths  of  the  €1.4  billion  allo-
cated for will go to support the GMES initiative. Other areas 
of interest include contributions to international space ex-
ploration initiatives and research into space transportation 
technology and space sciences, including life in space.

In Graz (AT) earlier this year, European ministers sitting on 
the Competitiveness Council discussed space and security 
research  in  the  context  of  FP7.  In  addition,  the  Council 
agreed that concrete policies and measures at both Euro-
pean  and  Member  State  level  are  still  needed  to  ensure 
the attainment of Europe’s strategic goals in space(a).

(a) http://www.bmvit.gv.at/en/eu_rat/innovation/events/space.html

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SPACE POLICY

FEATURE

n to new heights

“With  this  reorganisation,  the  Commission  emphasises  that 
space is an area which goes beyond research; is to become an 
integral part of the Lisbon Strategy for a knowledge-based Euro-
pean  society;  has  an  important  industrial  dimension,  with  the 
space industry representing a strategic sector at the beginning 
of an important macro-economic value-chain; is linked to secu-
rity and security related research,” explained Günter Verheugen, 
vice-president of the European Commission in charge of Enter-
prise and Industry.

Earth’s guardian angels

This blue planet we occupy has always been unpredictable. 
Since time immemorial, humans have lived in awe and fear 
of  nature’s  potentially  destructive  powers:  earthquakes, 
floods,  droughts,  forest  fires,  landslides,  tsunamis  and 
more.  Human-induced  climate  change 
is  taking  that 
unpredictability up a notch. 

Fortunately, we have plenty of eyes in space keeping watch over 
us. Although historically we have looked up to the stars for guid-
ance,  today  space  technology  allows  us  to  do  the  reverse.  In 
fact,  Earth  observation  and  monitoring  has  become  a  crucial 
tool in our environment and security arsenal. 

The most obvious and well-known use of observation technol-
ogy is for weather forecasting, where satellites collect data from 
space on cloud formations and pressure fronts, which are mixed 
with observations taken on Earth from various weather stations, 
interpreted by sophisticated computer modelling technology to 
produce a usually accurate forecast, and beamed out, often by 
satellite, into people’s homes. 

Although  space  imaging  technology  has  progressed  rapidly 
over the years, what the weather forecasting example illustrates 
is that satellites are only one part of the equation. Without an 
efﬁ cient and functioning network of sophisticated systems, the 
information they provide would not be as available.

GMES: Europe’s protective eye

Launched in 1998 as a joint Commission-ESA programme, the 
Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES)(1) ini-
tiative is aimed at providing the seamless and invisible link be-
tween different technologies in order to maximise the value of 
Earth observation for society and the economy.

The overarching objective of GMES services is to help improve 
the environmental safety and overall security of European citi-
zens, as well as supporting the implementation of other EU poli-
cies. GMES aims to monitor the state of the environment and its 
short, medium and long-term evolution to support policy deci-
sions, while being the European contribution to the worldwide 
Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) initiative. 

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“A comprehensive Earth observation system, using space-borne 
and in situ techniques on land, in the air and at sea, through well-
deﬁ ned operational services, is key to ensuring the implementa-
tion and monitoring of environmental and security policies in the 
context  of  sustainable  development,”  explained  Heinz  Zourek, 
director-general  of  the  Enterprise  and  Industry  DG  at  a  GMES 
conference in Graz, Austria earlier this year. The high-level delegates 
in  attendance  discussed,  among  other  things,  the  future  market 
for GMES. One clear message was the conﬁ rmation of GMES as 
the most important space application programme of the coming 
years. The role of the Commission, and in particular the Enterprise 
and Industry DG, in linking users together was stressed.

ESA: Europe’s space veteran
With an annual budget of nearly €3 billion and 17 mem-
ber states, the European Space Agency(a) runs a space pro-
gramme which aims to “ﬁ nd out more about the Earth, its 
immediate space environment, the solar system and the 
Universe,  as  well  as  to  develop  satellite-based  technolo-
gies and services, and to promote European industries”.

“Today,  space  activities  are  pursued  for  the  beneﬁ t  of  citi-
zens,  and  citizens  are  asking  for  a  better  quality  of  life  on 
Earth,”  ESA  Director-General  Jean-Jacques  Dordain  said  in 
an interview with the Japanese Space Agency. “They want 
greater security and economic wealth, but they also want to 
pursue their dreams, to increase their knowledge, and they 
want younger people to be attracted to the pursuit of sci-
ence and technology. I think that space can do all of this.”

Although the ESA is not an EU agency, it works closely with 
the  European  Union  through  an  ESA/EC  Framework  Agree-
ment, which entered into force in 2004. Through a joint task 
force set up in 2001 and other means, the ESA has helped the 
Commission to hammer out several space policy documents, 
including the Green Paper and White Paper on space.

(a) www.esa.int

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FEATURE

SPACE POLICY

The  applications  GMES  will  provide  fall  under  three  main  cat-
egories:  mapping,  support  and  forecasting.  Mapping  covers 
road  maps,  topography,  land  use  patterns,  the  monitoring  of 
agriculture and forestry, etc. GMES also seeks to support emer-
gency responses to natural and man-made disasters, including 
refugees  from  conﬂ icts.  An  inkling  of  this  potential  was  seen 
following the tsunami of 2004 when satellite images helped pin-
point trouble spots. Forecasting cover not only weather, but air 
pollution levels in cities, and the quality of marine waters.

GMES  and  other  space  applications  were  recognised  by  the 
European Conference on Security Research, held in Vienna ear-
lier this year, as “a strong and reliable backbone” for a variety of 
security-related services for both private and public users(2).

The registration phase of the Commission’s school competition 
to  ﬁ nd  a  name  for  the  GMES  system  was  due  to  close  at  the 
end  of  September  2006(3).  Now,  in  numerous  schools  across 
Europe, pupils, under their teachers’ supervision, will brainstorm 
and  propose  a  new  name.  The  competition  seeks  not  only  to 
ﬁ nd  an  eye-catching  name  for  the  initiative  but  also  to  raise 
awareness  of  it  among  young  people.  The  winner  should  be 
known in the ﬁ rst half of 2007.

Europe, ﬂ ying above 
the competition
In 1958, SCORE, the ﬁ rst communications satellite was launched. 
With  its  onboard  tape  recorder,  it  relayed  voice  messages,  in-
cluding US President Dwight D Eisenhower’s Christmas message 
to the world. In the half century since then, satellite telecommu-
nications has become the most economically signiﬁ cant space 
application, one which intimately affects our daily lives. 

Not  only  is  satellite  telecommunications  a  multi-billion  euro  in-
dustry, but it has also permeated so many areas of our daily lives. 
Modern  telephone  and  media  services  would  be  unthinkable 
without modern satellite communications, as would the expand-
ing universe of the internet. That is not to mention global posi-
tioning, telemedicine, tele-education and video conferencing.

The global satcom market is estimated to be worth more than 
€90 billion and is growing at a rate of some 15% per year. It is 
expected to reach a staggering €220 billion in the next seven 
years or so. 

Europe is a leading global player in the commercial satellite mar-
ket, despite troubled times for the industry in recent years. Over 
half the revenue of the European space industry (€5 billion per 
year) stems from the manufacture and launch of communica-
tions satellites. Ariane-4 has launched 139 telecom satellites and 
Ariane-5 more than 26. 

Space industry gets 
new launch platform
With an eye on boosting the competitiveness of the European 
space industry and contributing to the re-launched Lisbon Strat-
egy goals of creating more economic growth and jobs in the EU, 
the Union-backed Integral SatCom Initiative (ISI)(4) technology 
platform was launched in February 2006.

By bringing together key stakeholders from industry, enterprise, 
civil society and the policy-making sphere to forge a common vi-
sion and strategic research agenda (SRA), technology platforms(5) 
seek  to  bolster  the  effectiveness  of  the  sectors  they  operate  in. 
There are currently around 30 EU-backed technology platforms.

ISI will work to attract more private investment to an already proﬁ t-
able industry. The platform is expected to become a key guiding 
force in the planning of research and implementation under public, 
private, national and EU programmes. It has already published the 
ISI SRA(6). This important document will serve as a major source of 
input for the Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for Research 
(FP7), which is set to start next year and will continue until 2013. 
ISI will also contribute to the harmonisation of the European and 
international regulatory frameworks for satellite communications.

Space to shine

All this heightened interest in launching European space 
policy well and truly into orbit means that the EU will re-
quire new cadres of scientiﬁ c talent to ﬁ ll the thousands 
of space-related research jobs that will emerge in industry 
and academia.

Of  course,  space,  unlike  some  other  areas  of  science,  is 
sexy enough to attract a lot of interest from young people 
– the crucial issue here is to sustain that interest beyond 
the amateur and encourage more youngsters to embark 
on space-related educational and career paths.

The  European  space  community  is  aware  of  the  impor-
tance of raising interest in – as well as awareness of – their 
ﬁ eld. The ESA has a complete section of its website dedi-
cated  to  education  with  fun  activities  and  lesson  plans 
targeted  at  students  and  their  teachers.  The  European 
Southern Observatory, which operates the world’s largest 
telescope,  also  has  its  own  educational  programme  and 
also runs the annual ‘Catch a star’ competition.

Several EU-backed projects also promote awareness of space 
among young people. One example is D-Space which taps 
into and develops youngsters’ passion for stargazing through 
a growing network of remote-controlled robotic telescopes. 

D-Space runs a network of four remote-controlled robotic 
telescopes  dotted  across  Europe.  Subscribers  to  the  ser-
vice – who can be schools or interested individuals – can 
submit on-line requests for one or more of the telescopes 
to make observations of objects in the night sky, accord-
ing to certain technical criteria. In order to promote the 
best use of its platform and allow both teachers and stu-
dents  to  shine,  D-Space  organises  an  annual  astronomy 
contest called SkyWatch.

More information:
ESA education centre 
http://www.esa.int/esaED/index.html
ESO Educational Ofﬁ ce 
http://www.eso.org/outreach/eduoff/
D-Space http://www.discoveryspace.net/

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SPACE POLICY

FEATURE

By  offering  dual  frequencies  as  standard,  GALILEO  will  deliver 
real-time positioning accuracy down to a single metre, which is 
unprecedented for a publicly available system.

But its applications go beyond the commercial. It can be used 
to help carry out humanitarian operations, conduct search and 
rescue missions, monitor the environment and underwrite the 
safety of air travel.

The fully deployed GALILEO system will consist of 30 satellites po-
sitioned in three medium-Earth orbits. Once this is achieved, the 
GALILEO navigation signals will provide a good coverage even in 
the polar regions. On 28 December 2005, the ﬁ rst experimental 
satellite  in  the  GALILEO  conﬁ guration  was  launched.  By  2010, 
the entire system should be up and running. Negotiations for the 
system concession contract have also entered a decisive phase.

(1)  www.gmes.info
(2)  Conference conclusions are downloadable at 

http://www.bmvit.gv.at/en/eu_rat/innovation/downloads/
src/src_confconclusion.pdf

(3)  http://www.gmes-competition.info/ and 

http://ec.europa.eu/comm/space/gmes/index_en.htm

(4)  http://www.isi-initiative.eu.org/
(5)  http://cordis.europa.eu/technology-platforms/home_en.html
(6)  http://www.isi-initiative.eu.org/documents2.php?tiposcelto=Default+Docs
(7)  http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/energy_transport/galileo/documents/doc/

comm_pdf_com_2006_0272_en.pdf

INCO: Making a world of 
difference in space

International  co-operation  has  become  a  crucial  tenet  of 
European space policy. Not only does the EU have space co-
operation agreements with the traditional space powers of 
the United States and Russia, it is also forging close alliances 
with emerging players, such as Japan, China and India.

Although  the  EU  is  the  main  driving  force  behind  the 
GALILEO  programme,  other  countries  are  also  playing 
important roles, including China, India, the USA, Ukraine 
and  South  Korea.  Europe  is  also  closely  involved  in  the 
International Space Station.

Over 40 countries and more than 20 international organi-
sations gathered for the ‘Winning through co-operation’ 
conference in Brussels, on 17 February 2005. High repre-
sentatives from the European Space Agency (ESA), NASA, 
the Russian Space Agency and the European Union, and 
many others, discussed past, present and future interna-
tional space endeavours.

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Navigating an independent course

Satellite  positioning  has  already  become  the  standard  way  of 
navigating on the high seas and is rapidly becoming common-
place on land and in the air. However, Europe has a problem: 
it is dependent on potentially unreliable military systems for its 
satellite positioning needs.

Satellite  navigation  users  in  Europe  today  have  no  alternative 
other than to take their positions from the American GPS. Yet the 
military operators of this system give no guarantee to maintain an 
uninterrupted service, particularly during times of conﬂ ict.

In addition, as more and more motorists and airlines switch to sat-
ellite navigation, the commercial incentive for designing a non-mil-
itary positioning system are immense. By 2020, the global market 
is set to reach some €275 billion a year. In order to position itself 
strategically in this market and to shake off its dependence on mili-
tary systems, the EU has launched its €3.2-billion GALILEO system.

GALILEO  will  offer  everybody  everywhere  satellite  positioning 
services with guaranteed reliability. Individuals, companies and 
administrations will all be able to beneﬁ t, whether on the roads, 
railways, in the skies or at sea.

Galilean mechanics

In honour of the great Italian renaissance scientist and astrono-
mer Galileo Galilei, the EU named its satellite navigation system 
after  him.  It  will  provide  a  highly  accurate,  guaranteed  global 
positioning service under civilian control.

“GALILEO is perfectly in line with the Lisbon growth strategy. It is the 
largest industrial project ever organised on a European scale, the ﬁ rst 
European public-private partnership, the ﬁ rst European public infra-
structure. The project will generate jobs as well as innovation and im-
provement for European citizens”, said Commission Vice-President 
Jacques Barrot at the launch of a Commission communication taking 
stock of progress made by the GALILEO programme(7).

The system has applications in numerous sectors including road, 
rail and air transport; mobile telephony; ﬁ nance and insurance; 
and  civil  engineering.  Its  unprecedented  accuracy  could  even 
lead to the development of navigation systems for blind people. 

More information 
http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/space/themes/
inter_cooperation_en.html

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KNOWLEDGE SOCIETY

E-COMMUNICATIONS

New channels for 
e-communications policy

regulatory 
The  new 
framework 
for  elec-
tronic  communications 
was at the heart of the 
Lisbon  Strategy.  But 
there  is  still  a  trans-
atlantic  gap  in  e-com-
munications  use.  Ac-
cording  to  a  report  by 
a  Brussels-based  think-
tank,  action  needs  to 
be taken to put it back 
on course.

European 
broadband 
take-up is increasing fast 
– rising from 20 million 
lines in 2004 to 53 mil-
lion  a  year  later.  On-
line  applications  such 
as  VoIP  –  Voice  over 
Internet  Protocol  –  are 
growing  robustly.  Despite  these  successes,  the  overall  picture, 
according to this report by the Centre for European Policy Stud-
ies, is that NRF – the new regulatory framework for electronic 
communications – has not been entirely successful in its object-
ive  of  complementing  the  Lisbon  Strategy  by  utilising  ICT  to 
boost productivity.

R&D  investment  growth  in  the  EU  continues  to  be  sluggish, 
partly due to the internal gap between Member States, with e-
communications contributing little to productivity growth. Per 
capita investment in telecoms infrastructure in the EU (exclud-
ing the UK) is only two-thirds the level of the United States and, 
in Germany, it is less than half.

While  the  UK,  Scandinavia  and  the  Netherlands  are  showing 
rapid investment growth and broadband penetration similar to 
US and Japanese levels, other areas – such as parts of Southern, 
Central and Eastern Europe – are not.

NRF was expected to mark the new beginning for e-communi-
cations in Europe. Although it came into effect in 2002, it has 
not been fully implemented. There has been long transposition 
in  some  Member  States  and  regulators’  market  analyses  have 
sometimes  been  very  complex.  Legal  action  in  some  Member 
States has led to the effective suspension of the framework. 

access  one  or  more  of  the  four  steps  on  the  ladder  –  resale, 
bitstream, shared or full unbundling – and gradually build their 
own network.

But  this  approach  has  received  some  criticism,  i.e.  that  it  has 
not yet demonstrated the potential to promote investments and 
infrastructure-based competition in the EU.

While there is to be a review of the NRF, this is not expected to 
take  effect  before  2010,  which  is  too  long  to  wait  before  tak-
ing further action. In 2003, the Commission deﬁ ned 18 relevant 
markets. These can be streamlined by removing retail markets 
and  some  of  the  wholesale  markets  in  need  of  regulation.  In-
stead,  there  should  be  a  more  rigorous  assessment  of  which 
markets require intervention, and a more careful use of compe-
tition policy tools in market deﬁ nition, the assessment of SMP 
and the selection of remedies. 

Greater  regulatory  certainty  and  commitment  would  stimu-
late the roll-out of new infrastructures and encourage invest-
ment  in  next-generation  networks  (NGNs).  But  the  optimal 
approach  to  stimulating  NGNs  may  differ  according  to  na-
tional circumstances.

Other  principles  should  be  adopted  to  facilitate  growth  in  e-
communications investment.  Digital rights management (DRM) 
is expected to grow dramatically in use in the future – Microsoft 
expects it to expand tenfold in 2006 – to restrict illegal copy-
ing of digital ﬁ les, protecting content both on-line and off-line. 
DRM services should not overlap with copyright levies, as this 
could lead to consumers paying multiple copyright fees in trans-
ferring a single item of content.

Spectrum  liberalisation  and  trading  should  be  seen  as  a  key 
driver of growth and employment, with spectrum policy coord-
inated at the pan-European level, possibly through the ‘Article 7’ 
procedure. The availability of harmonised spectrum resources is 
crucial in realising its potential.

The Television without Frontiers Directive should exclude non-
linear services – audio-visual media services delivered on demand 
– as these are already regulated by the e-Commerce Directive. 
Regulators should be less intrusive, with the competition policy 
and better regulations dimensions of the NRF strengthened. 

Market matters

Most  national  regulators  are  using  the  ‘investment  ladder’  or 
‘stepping stones’ to enable long-term infrastructure-based com-
petition  in  telecoms  markets.  This  assumes  new  entrants  can 

Last call for Lisbon? Suggestions for the future regulation of 
e-communications in Europe. Final report of a CEPS Task Force.
ISBN 92-9079-629-4
Centre for European Policy Studies, Brussels, 2006
English, 119 pp, €25 (paper), €20 (electronic)
Order: http://shop.ceps.be/BookDetail.php?item_id=1352

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EUROPEAN BIOTECHNOLOGY

KNOWLEDGE SOCIETY

Short of money 

but not ideas

A  new  industry  report 
shows  that,  while  Eur-
ope  is  innovatively  de-
veloping  its  biotechnol-
ogy  sector,  it  still  lags 
behind the world leader, 
the United States, in one 
major  respect:  money. 
It  reveals  that  Europe 
is  good  at  lighting  the 
initial  spark  but  lacks 
the ﬁ nancial fuel to keep 
some of its most promis-
ing ideas running.

Biotechnology  in  Europe: 
2006 Comparative study is 
the latest survey carried out on behalf of EuropaBio, the Euro-
pean Association for Bioindustries. It concludes that, while there 
is a great deal of enthusiasm for biotechnology in Europe, it is 
underperforming by comparison with the United States due to a 
lack of proper debt ﬁ nance and access to venture capital. 

Even  though  total  equity  ﬁ nancing  in  Europe  was  up  44%  in 
2004 from 2003 and money raised through venture capital was 
up by 41% over the same period, European biotech companies 
still  had  access  to  only  one-ﬁ fth  of  the  private  equity  ﬁ nance 
available  to  their  US  rivals.  The  problem,  according  to  the  re-
port, is that European biotechnology is not mature enough to 
attract the kinds of ﬁ nance currently available in the US.

The study was based on an analysis of nearly 2 200 biotechnology 
companies in 18 European countries. The number of new compa-
nies formed in Europe were nearly 120 compared with less than 
80 in the USA. This suggests that Europe is good at lighting the 
initial spark but less good at keeping the ﬂ ame going. “Europe is 
extraordinarily  entrepreneurial,”  observed  Johan  Vanhemelrijck, 
the secretary-general of EuropaBio.

In other respects, the contrasts between the European and US 
biotech sector are marked. The industries on both sides of the 
Atlantic have more or less the same number of companies but 
the US sector employs nearly twice as many people (190 000 
compared with 96 500 in Europe), spends around three times 
as much on research and development, and raises over twice as 

much venture capital. The US sector also earns twice as much 
revenue  as  Europe  (€41.5  billion  in  the  USA  compared  with 
€21.5 billion in Europe).

When funds run dry

One of the reasons for this difference, according to the report, 
is down to the practicalities of funding innovation. Biotechnol-
ogy is a long-term business which, for example, in the case of 
healthcare  products,  can  only  work  at  the  pace  of  regulators 
who must abide by their own responsibilities and rules. Similar-
ly, the regulatory regime in the agricultural and environmental 
markets can also have the same effect of putting the brake on 
biotech innovation in the short term.

The report examines the consequences of drying up funds and 
other factors. Too many European companies are preoccupied 
with keeping their heads above water and staying in business, 
rather than innovating. As a result, they grow more slowly than 
their better-funded US peers.

Inability  to  compete  in  certain  global  markets  means  that 
European biotech ﬁ rms can miss out on certain funding op-
portunities  which  could  provide  greater  stability  and  foster 
needed growth. The disparity between the United States and 
Europe  means  that  wealthier  and  more  stable  US  biotech 
companies  are  able  to  acquire  European  biotech  businesses 
or talent – as a result, expertise, money and innovation often 
drift across the Atlantic.

The news is not all bad for Europe, the report acknowledges. 
The  rate  of  formation  of  new  biotech  companies  in  Europe 
(particularly  in  Spain,  Italy,  Austria,  the  Netherlands  and 
Portugal) is high. This reﬂ ects the desire – articulated by the 
Lisbon Strategy – to forge a world-leading knowledge-based 
economy in Europe. 

Biotechnology in Europe: 2006 comparative study 
EuropaBio, Brussels, 2006
English, 42 pp, free of charge
Download: http://www.europabio.org/CriticalI2006/Critical2006.pdf

New channels for European TV regulations

New technologies and internationalisation have led to fundamental changes within the 
EU’s  broadcasting  industries.  These  developments  represent  a  challenge  for  traditional 
regulation, forcing the EU and its Member States to redeﬁ ne their role. In the framework 
of the revision of the Television without Frontiers Directive, this study by the Information 
Society  DG  aims  to  provide  an  overview  of  the  co-regulatory  actions  taken  to  date  in 
the Union and four non-EU countries. It also assesses the efﬁ ciency of those regulatory 
systems and the legal challenges the Member States are now facing, with particular focus 
on European law.

Final report – study on co-regulation measures in 
the media sector
European Commission, Brussels, 2006 
English, 198 pp, free of charge
Download: http://ec.europa.eu/comm/avpolicy/
docs/library/studies/coregul-ﬁ nal-report.pdf

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COMPETITIVENESS

ASSET MANAGEMENT

Securing the future 

for investment funds

Europe’s  investment  fund  industry  is 
highly  successful.  But  that  success  is 
threatened  by  new  trends.  This  calls 
for the tweaking of the EU’s regulatory 
framework.

The European Undertakings for the Col-
lective Investment of Transferable Secur-
ities  (UCITS) industry has become phe-
nomenally  successful.  The  market  has 
quadrupled in size in the last decade, to 
more  than  30  000  UCITS,  with  €5  tril-
lion in assets under management at the 
end of 2005.

They  are  regulated  by  EU  Directive  85/611/EC  which  coord-
inates  laws,  regulations  and  administrative  provisions  for  the 
investment fund industry based in Europe. Funds marketed on 
a cross-border basis play a growing role in the industry: nearly 
5 000 UCITS, or 17% of the total. The UCITS passport – intro-
duced by the above Directive – enabled extensive cross-border 
marketing of funds, with the number of cross-border funds in-
creasing by 50% between 2001 and 2004.

Investor and regulatory conﬁ dence is based on the protections 
provided by the Directive, which is accepted as the de facto in-
ternational gold standard. UCITS authorisation is often accepted 
for market access in Switzerland, Asia and Latin America. But ac-
cess could improve further if there were a more structured form 
of mutual co-operation with third countries authorities. 

The  industry  is  at  a  crossroads.  Cross-border  competition  is 
increasing,  product  innovation  is  accelerating  and  new  non-
UCITS savings products, with lighter regulation, are attracting 
more  investment.  Barriers  for  the  UCITS  industry  include  long 
time-to-market  delays,  limitations  on  economies  of  scale  and 
restrictions on pan-European organisation.

Relaxing rigid regulation

Inefﬁ ciencies  result,  in  part,  from  the  age  and  rigidity  of  the 
Directive, which is becoming increasingly outdated. This is ex-
acerbated by the absence of enabling mechanisms to help the 
industry respond to new challenges.

Actions  to  improve  the  working  of  the  UCITS  framework  are 
under  examination  within  the  Commission.  An  Expert  Group 
from  the  industry  was  asked  by  the  Commission  to  suggest 
cost-effective ways to support a more efﬁ cient organisation of 
the European fund value chain. The experts’ recommendations 
were published in July.

According to their report, obtaining authorisation in the country 
where  the  funds  are  domiciled  can  be  slow,  penalising  UCITS 

compared  with  competing  products  with  less  investor  protec-
tion.  The  notiﬁ cation  procedure  is  also  time-consuming  and 
burdensome.  The  Directive  should  be  amended  to  align  au-
thorisation  and  notiﬁ cation  rules  with  those  of  the  Prospectus 
Directive,  leading  to  fund  authorisation  in  20  days  and  regu-
lator-to-regulator notiﬁ cation within three days. The simpliﬁ ed 
prospectus should be a fully and automatically recognised cross-
border document, containing key disclosures for investors. 

The report also supports changes to the UCITS Directive in order 
to provide a mechanism for fund mergers, subject to measures 
protecting investors and reassuring regulators. Regarding asset 
pooling, the report stressed that pooling techniques have been 
widely  tested  in  some  Member  States.  Allowing  cross-border 
pooling  could  considerably  reduce  costs.  The  UCITS  Directive 
should be amended to remove provisions that limit this. Regula-
tors  should  build  mutual  understanding  to  enable  a  cross-
border use of pooling techniques.

More organisational ﬂ exibility

Experts also believe that fund managers should be able to provide 
management services to funds domiciled in other Member States. 
This could lead to a rational reorganisation of the industry based 
on the actual location of the specialised knowledge. The UCITS 
III amendments attempted to do this, but did not fully succeed. 
The management company passport should be strengthened by 
eliminating the Directive’s inconsistencies and omissions that un-
dermine it. The right to appoint a management company abroad 
should be extended to contractual funds, too. 

A  depositary  passport  would  require  a  prior  harmonisation  of 
the  role  and  obligations  of  the  depositaries.  These  provide  an 
essential function for investor protection that needs to be pre-
served.  In  the  short  term,  experts  recommend  that  branches 
of  banks  from  other  Member  States  should  be  allowed  to  act 
as depositaries. Depositaries should also be permitted to dele-
gate asset safe-keeping to custodians in other Member States. 
In the longer term, the Commission should seek to harmonise 
the capital requirements of depositaries.

The  experts  consider  that  these  issues  have  already  been  exten-
sively debated for several years. Urgent action is now required. Le-
gislative changes should be completed within three years. Further 
delays risk compromising the success of the EU funds industry.

Report of the Expert Group on Investment Fund Market Efﬁ ciency
European Commission, Internal Market and Services DG,
Brussels, 2006
English, 31 pp, free of charge
Download: http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/securities/
docs/ucits/reports/efﬁ ciency_en.pdf

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COMMISSION COMMUNICATION

COMPETITIVENESS

Fuelling SMEs on 

the road to Lisbon

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A new European Commission Communication sets out a ser-
ies of proposals, within the framework of the renewed Lisbon 
Strategy for growth and jobs, to help innovative small and 
medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) access risk capital.

The  success  of  the  relaunched  Lisbon  Strategy  which  was  re-
focused  not  only  to  turn  Europe  into  a  world-beating  know-
ledge-based economy but also to generate better growth and 
jobs  depends  to  a  large  extent  on  Europe’s  23  million  diverse 
SMEs. Sustainable growth and development – the direct result 
of entrepreneurship, competition and innovation – is the goal. 
That means that now more than ever, SMEs need better access 
to ﬁ nance. 

Europe needs the high-growth potential of SMEs, but European 
venture capital investment in early stage ﬁ rms has “stagnated” 
and,  at  later  stages,  the  fragmented  European  growth  stock 
markets  appear  not  to  have  the  liquidity  that  would  attract 
SMEs and investors. The emphasis throughout this Commission 
document is that, if these trends are to be reversed, the EU and 
Member States must work with other stakeholders to transform 
the environment for risk capital in Europe. The aim is sustainable 
growth in venture capital investment within a more favourable 
regulatory environment. 

Action should include boosting ‘business angel’ investment, i.e. 
direct  investment  by  wealthy  and  experienced  investors  who 
are  often  entrepreneurs  themselves  in  the  ﬁ eld  of  their  inter-
est. Larger and more professional venture capital funds are also 
needed to increase investment at the early stage of an SME’s life. 
Additionally, a transformation of attitudes among entrepreneurs 
is  required  to  make  them  seek  more  growth  and  be  ready  to 
accept investment and sharing of control as the price for this.

Another speciﬁ c area covered by the report is debt ﬁ nance for 
SMEs. The report recommends closer links with ﬁ nancial institu-
tions where risk assessment is increasingly important, as well as a 
greater use of loan guarantees. Microﬁ nance (loans of less than 

€25 000) could increase competitiveness, entrepreneurship and 
even social inclusion. Elsewhere, the potential for hybrid instru-
ments (a mixture of loans and equity) is identiﬁ ed as a means to 
strengthen balance sheets and ﬁ nance business transfers. 

An extensive suite of measures

The  Communication  also  describes  the  extensive  range  of  EU 
measures to ﬁ nance SME growth. These include the Competi-
tiveness  and  Innovation  Framework  Programme  (CIP),  which 
will invest nearly €1 billion to leverage €30 billion of new ﬁ nance 
for SMEs between 2007 and 2013.

There is also the Joint European Resources for Micro to Medium 
Enterprises (JEREMIE), combining ERDF(1) funding with loan and 
other capital, as part of EU regional policy to support innovative 
SMEs; and the Seventh Research Framework Programme, pro-
viding opportunities for SMEs through the ‘Co-operation’ and 
‘Capacities’ programmes.  

Closer co-operation between the Commission and the European 
Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Investment Fund (EIF) 
is also envisaged, as well as between Commission-funded activ-
ities and private networks, such as the European Business Angels 
Network (EBAN).

The report also addresses work to be done at the national level. 
Member  States  should  improve  their  ﬁ nancial  systems  in  the 
context  of  long-term  and  stable  SME  policies.  Amended  legal 
systems and judicial processes to improve the regulatory envir-
onment for SMEs are recommended as an antidote to unclear 
bankruptcy laws, slow justice systems and weak creditor rights.

More work needs to be done too, to increase the attractiveness 
of  venture  capital  to  institutional  investors,  including  pension 
funds  and  insurance  companies.  While  on  the  demand  side, 
European  entrepreneurs  need  to  be  involved  in  profession-
ally run investment-readiness programmes to help them meet 
invest or concerns. 

The  Commission  has  pledged  to  monitor  progress  on  SME  ﬁ -
nance and provide a report in 2009 to feed into the reporting 
on progress with the renewed Lisbon Strategy.

(1) European Regional Development Fund

Implementing the Community Lisbon programme – ﬁ nancing SME 
growth – adding European value
COM(2006) 349 ﬁ nal
European Commission, Brussels, 2006
English, 12 pp, free of charge
Download: http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/entrepreneurship/ﬁ nancing/
docs/com2006_ﬁ nancing_sme_growth/sec2006_841_ﬁ nancing_
sme_growth_en.pdf

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COMPETITIVENESS

VENTURE CAPITAL

The transatlantic 

equity gap

Valuations of venture capital stakes can be subjective. While the 
distributions from investments are known, the unrealised value 
of the investment is based on an assessed market value. “Return 
information is largely based on asset valuations that always have 
an element of subjectivity,” the report points out.

Don’t be fooled by the J-curve

Initial  returns  can  be  misleading.  Early-stage  venture  capital 
goes into a company while it is making start-up losses, produc-
ing a typical negative return for the ﬁ rst year or two. After that, 
investors can expect to see positive returns. This produces the 
so-called ‘J-curve’ of returns.

The longer it takes an investment to turn into a good positive re-
turn, the longer investors’ cash is locked in. US venture capitalists not 
only achieve better returns, but these begin sooner. Risk exposure 
for  venture  capitalists  is  much  shorter  in  America  than  in  Europe. 
Of European early-stage venture capital funds formed between 1980 
and 2003, distributions to investors amount to only 43% of initial in-
vestments. Investments in US early-stage companies produce higher 
initial losses, but faster and steeper turnaround of performance.

It is important to realise that the venture capital industry is not 
homogenous and disparities exist on both sides of the Atlantic. 
“There is great dispersion in the returns produced by individual 
funds, in particular in the US but also in Europe. By being able 
to  invest  in  the  very  best  funds,  an  institutional  investor  may 
achieve returns that far exceed averages.”

Nevertheless, performance in Europe needs to be improved if it 
is to attract more investors. “The low proﬁ tability of the Euro-
pean  venture  industry...  raises  the  question  of  whether  or  not 
the current level [of] asset allocation to venture capital by insti-
tutional investors will be maintained and how the right condi-
tions can be created to improve conﬁ dence.”

Proﬁ tability of venture capital investment in Europe 
and the United States
ISSN 1725-3187
European Commission, Brussels, 2006
English, 27 pp, free of charge 
Download:
http://bookshop.eu.int/eubookshop/FileCache/PUBPDF/
KCAI06245ENC/KCAI06245ENC_002.pdf 

Venture  capital  investment  is  much  more  proﬁ table  in  the 
United  States  than  in  Europe,  a  new  Commission  report 
reveals.  The  issue  of  returns  on  investment  needs  to  be  ad-
dressed to boost investor conﬁ dence.

A comparison of internal rates of return (IRR) on venture cap-
ital investments in Europe and the United States shows that the 
USA  is  performing  better.  For  early  stage  venture  investment, 
the average pooled return in Europe was -1.8%, against 54.9% 
in the United States, for the ﬁ ve years between 1999 and 2003. 
Over  ten  years,  the  ﬁ gures  were  1.3%  and  37%  respectively. 
While the returns in Europe were better for development stage 
venture capital, they were also disappointing – average pooled 
European returns in the same period were 4.6% against 19.4% 
across  the  Atlantic.  Over  a  ten-year  time  horizon,  1994-2003, 
they were 10.7% and 20.4% respectively.

In Europe, venture capital returns are lower than those from pri-
vate equity. Over the same ﬁ ve-year horizon, venture capital gen-
erated an average pooled IRR of 2.3%, against 7.3% in private 
equity.  The  ten-year  average  pooled  return  was  8.3%  for  Euro-
pean venture capital, compared with 11.9% for private equity.

Figures  must  be  interpreted  with  caution.  Much  of  the  differ-
ence in performance between Europe and the US appears to re-
late to the events of the 1990s, with US funds investing heavily 
in new technology start-ups and, in many cases, exiting when 
the investments were highly valued. European venture capital-
ists tended to invest later, missing the main gains of the boom 
and suffering from the downturn. 

Capital ideas

Microsoft and Apple are two of the most famous companies whose success owes a lot 
to venture capital. This kind of success has spurred policy discussion on venture capital 
ﬁ nance. This book of eight chapters aims to describe the role of European venture capital 
and private equity industries in microeconomics. It also analyses the industry features of 
venture capital ﬁ nance in European countries. By combining both microeconomic and 
industry aspects of venture capital ﬁ nance, the author questions the limits of recent re-
search and adds considerably to the current debate on this subject.

The venture capital industry in Europe
ISBN 14-03-99667-9
Palgrave MacMillan, Basingstoke, UK, 2006 
English, 184 pp, £55 (€81 approx)
Order: http://www.palgrave.com/products/
Catalogue.aspx?is=1403996679

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ENERGY POLICY

ENVIRONMENT

Taking the sting out 

of energy’s tail

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Modern  humans  have  a  large  appetite  for  energy  and,  as 
the European economy grows, we tend to use more of it. Ap-
propriate  measures  to  prevent  and  control  damage  to  the 
environment from energy production and use should be fully 
integrated into the energy sector, advises the European Envir-
onment Agency.

EU energy policy has three main objectives: security of supply, 
environmental sustainability and competitiveness, as underlined 
by the European Council earlier this year. It is going to be hard 
to formulate policy encompassing all these objectives. For exam-
ple, competition drives down energy prices, encouraging more 
consumption and increasing greenhouse gas and air pollutant 
emissions, while increased dependence on energy imports may 
act as a brake on consumption through price rises.

The European Environment Agency has analysed trends in the 
effects  that  energy  production  and  consumption  had  on  the 
environment between 1990 and 2003, a period that has seen 
great changes in the energy sector. The early 1990s was an era 
of low energy prices, but political upheavals in the Middle East 
and  increasing  demand  from  India  and  China,  in  particular, 
have  forced  prices  up  and  raised  worries  about  increased  de-
pendency in the future on external supplies. More efﬁ cient use 
of energy, greater production of energy from renewable sources 
and, ultimately, reducing the overall level of energy consump-
tion would improve supply security and help to reduce green-
house gas emissions.

Rising consumption 

In  its  second  report  on  trends  in  integrating  the  environment 
into energy policy, the EEA presents a number of key ﬁ ndings. 
The  market  liberalisation  and  increased  competition  which 
drove  down  energy  prices  in  the  1990s  has  increased  energy 

consumption. This was most marked for transport, but also for 
domestic  electricity,  where  larger  dwellings  and  the  profusion 
of  electrical  appliances  have  swamped  the  improved  efﬁ cien-
cy  of  household  machines,  such  as  refrigerators.  The  average 
annual increase has been 0.8% but it has been growing faster 
since  1999.  As  a  result  of  this  growth,  greenhouse  emissions 
have started to rise again, especially in road transport. Only the 
industrial sector has succeeded in reducing its energy consump-
tion, by about 5%. 

Key elements of an integrated energy strategy are the introduc-
tion of less-polluting technologies and the reduction of energy 
consumption. Using energy more efﬁ ciently is another way to 
cope  with  greater  demand.  Overall,  the  EU  has  succeeded  in 
generating electricity more efﬁ ciently and cutting energy inten-
sity.  The  other  important  measure  is  to  use  cleaner  and  more 
sustainable energy sources. The EEA concludes that policies for 
renewables and energy efﬁ ciency work best when they are ad-
dressed simultaneously. 

Falling pollution

Europe has had some success in reducing the impacts of energy 
consumption and production on the environment. Greenhouse 
gas  emissions  from  energy  production  and  use  have  decreased 
overall, and other air pollution from energy production and use 
has fallen by about half over the period of the study. But after ini-
tial improvements through the introduction of catalytic convert-
ers for vehicles and the switch to natural gas to generate electric-
ity, progress has slowed down again. Poor air quality continues to 
affect the health of people and ecosystems, and pollution levels 
in  some  European  cities  still  exceed  legislative  limits.  Four-ﬁ fths 
of  our  energy  needs  are  still  met  by  fossil  fuels,  which  are  the 
main source of sulphur dioxide, NOx and CO2 emissions. Signiﬁ -
cant further growth in renewable energy will be essential to meet 
Europe’s renewable targets for 2010 and beyond. 

It is hard to see how this can come about without changes in 
the energy pricing structure. The environmental costs of energy 
are  not  covered  by  the  price  we  pay  for  it,  although  taxation 
has risen appreciably over the period. This detailed analysis of 
all the trends breaks its results down by all European countries, 
end uses, sources of energy and time lines. It will help to guide 
the formulation of policies to make the targets that Europe has 
adopted more realisable.

Energy and environment in the European Union – tracking progress 
towards integration 
ISBN 92-9167-877-5
European Environment Agency, Copenhagen, 2006
English, 52 pp, free of charge 
http://reports.eea.europa.eu/eea_report_2006_8/en/
eea_report_8_2006.pdf

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ENVIRONMENT

RENEWABLE ENERGY

How much does bio-energy 
protect the environment?

ent ground cover and do not need much fertiliser, such as reed 
canary grass and fast-growing woody plants for regular coppic-
ing. Oil seeds, already widely grown and used in bio-diesel, have 
a moderate environmental impact but root crops, such as sugar 
beet, are environmentally costly. Lower yield crops may be pre-
ferred  for  environmental  reasons,  so  environmental  guidelines 
need to be part of the planning process at every level. Europe’s 
environmentally  compatible  bio-energy  production  from  agri-
culture  could  rise  from  47  million  tonnes  of  oil  equivalent  in 
2010 to 142 MtOE by 2030. This compares with 69 MtOE from 
all biomass sources in 2003.

Scaling the energy tree

Roughly 30% of Europe is covered with mature forests that are 
rich in plant and animal species and relatively under-exploited. 
They can provide biomass from the branches, stumps and roots 
left after felling and by clearing dead wood and litter, supple-
mented  by  complementary  felling  of  whole  trees  to  increase 
energy content. As demand for stem wood grows, so does the 
biomass potential, especially in Sweden and Finland, while other 
countries could support increased felling without environmen-
tal harm. The use of wood to make paper is expected to fall in 
future, reducing residues, so the overall contribution of forestry 
remains roughly constant.

Using  waste  for  energy  production  is  environmentally  highly 
benign. As society becomes more prosperous, it produces waste 
in growing amounts and diverting it from landﬁ ll to energy pro-
duction turns it from a nuisance into a resource. The most useful 
streams are straw and manure from farming, municipal waste, 
sawdust and wood-waste residues, and the so-called black liquor 
from paper manufacture. Environmental considerations are that 
reuse  and  recycling  should  take  precedence  over  incineration. 
In the long term, the amount of usable waste will remain more 
or less constant as municipal waste and packaging are reduced 
and more straw is used as fodder. 

These  conclusions  are  reached  through  careful  scenario  draw-
ing,  using  a  number  of  assumptions.  As  primary  energy  costs 
rise  and  carbon  permit  trading  increases  towards  the  end  of 
the period considered, biomass will offer increased beneﬁ ts and 
could provide 15% of Europe’s energy, saving much greenhouse 
gas emission (for which the report did not provide estimates). 
It  does  suggest  the  useful  prospect  of  increased  employment, 
particularly in rural areas.

How much bio-energy can Europe produce without 
harming the environment? 
ISBN 92-9167-849-X
European Environment Agency, Copenhagen, 2006
English, 67 pp, free of charge
Download: http://reports.eea.europa.eu/eea_report_2006_7/
en/eea_report_7_2006.pdf

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A switch to bio-energy would cut carbon emissions and give 
Europe  a  more  secure  energy  supply.  But  is  there  a  limit  to 
how much bio-energy we can produce without damaging the 
environment? 

Europe needs to produce more of its energy from renewable re-
sources in order to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions and safe-
guard its future energy supplies. A gut reaction is that the environ-
ment would beneﬁ t too, but the European Environment Agency 
considers it important to see if environmental disadvantages would 
emerge as bio-energy production is stepped up. It has just pub-
lished this projection to 2030, showing that there is huge potential 
to  increase  bio-energy  production  even  when  environmental 
concerns are taken into account.

Farmed fuel

The three main sources of bio-energy are agriculture, forestry and 
bio-waste. Agriculture already contributes to energy generation 
in a small way, but has the greatest potential for growth, the EEA 
ﬁ nds.  With  greater  use  of  set-aside  land  and  other  changes  in 
agricultural policy, much more land could be devoted to energy 
crops  without  reducing  the  amount  of  food  grown  for  domes-
tic markets nor increasing environmental pressure. EEA excludes 
grasslands, olive groves and Mediterranean holm oak scrub (de-
hesas) from conversion to arable crops, even for energy.

Much  current  farming  practice  already  threatens  biodiversity: 
monocultures  soak  up  water  and  do  not  support  much  wild-
life, while agro-chemical run-off pollutes groundwater and top-
soil  left  unplanted  is  easily  eroded.  The  most  environmentally 
friendly energy crops are perennial ones that provide perman-

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SUSTAINABLE ENERGY

ENVIRONMENT

The heat is on

With  CO2  emissions  predicted  to  be  two-and-a-half  times 
higher by 2050, a consensus is emerging that steps need to 
be taken now to tackle climate change. But will a switch to a 
more sustainable future be feasible economically? This Inter-
national Energy Agency report lights the way.

A  surge  in  the  price  of  oil,  coupled  with  the  rising  preva-
lence  of  ‘natural’  disasters,  such  as  Hurricane  Katrina,  has 
finally thrust the issue of climate change on to the economic 
and political radar worldwide. 

But  have  we  left  it  too  late  and  is  the  solution  likely  to  be  as 
damaging as the problem? This report, which was prepared by 
the International Energy Agency in response to a G8 meeting in 
Scotland in the summer of 2005, suggests that climate change 
can be tackled through the widespread application of technolo-
gies that already exist or are in the pipeline. 

It makes the point powerfully that the world is not on course, 
at present, for a sustainable future. Emissions of carbon dioxide, 
the key greenhouse gas, have risen by more than 20% during 
the past decade and, if current trends continue, CO2 emissions 
and  oil  demand  will  grow  rapidly  over  the  next  25  years.  In-
deed, CO2 emissions will be almost 2.5 times the current level 
by 2050, if we fail to act. Energy demand is expected to soar 
during this period, with fossil fuels poised to satisfy 85% of the 
world’s additional energy needs. 

The  IEA’s  study  examines  the  policy  implications  of  tackling 
climate change. It lays out ﬁ ve accelerated technology scenarios 
that show how CO2 emissions can be returned to their current 
levels by 2050. The scenarios differ on the basis of how quickly 
energy  efﬁ ciency  can  be  improved  and  how  rapidly  the  cost 
of  various  technologies,  such  as  renewables,  nuclear  and 
CO2  capture  and  storage  can  be  cut  and,  therefore,  made 
economically viable. 

The energy efﬁ ciency key

There is also a sixth scenario involving more optimistic assump-
tions  about  the  potential  for  rapid  technological  progess.  Re-
assuringly, the report ﬁ nds that the additional cost of energy as 
a result of moving from a carbon-based economy is unlikely to 
be collosal, although the transitional costs of introducing new 
technologies could be substantial.

Exploring new policy shores

By  far  the  biggest  meas-
ure  that  can  be  taken  to 
rewrite  our  future  is  to 
improve energy efﬁ ciency, 
which acounts for 31-53% 
of  any  reduction  of  CO2 
emissions  from  the  level 
that would be reached by 
2050 at current trends. In 
many  countries,  buildings 
could  be  made  70%  more  efﬁ cient  than  they  are  at  present, 
while China’s cement industry could be 50% more energy ef-
ﬁ cient simply by applying existing technologies. Pollution from 
transport  could  also  be  addressed  through  the  increased  use 
of hybrid vehicles and advanced diesel engines, particularly in 
countries such as the United States, where the low petrol prices 
have encouraged ‘gas guzzling’.

However, the most contentious area is likely to be power gen-
eration and the relative merits of nuclear, renewables and CO2 
storage.  Surprisingly,  the  report  plays  down  the  potential  of 
solar power. Although it points out that the technology is im-
proving  and  the  cost  falling,  it  assumes  that  solar  power  will 
account  for  less  than  2%  of  power  generation.  By  contrast,  it 
is  much  more  positive  about  the  future  of  nuclear  power,  de-
spite the obvious environmental concerns related to radioactive 
waste disposal, and fails to address other related problems, such 
as the potentially damaging effects of accidents. 

As uranium is a ﬁ nite resource, a global switch to nuclear may 
create  a  new  form  of  energy  insecurity.  In  addition,  nuclear 
energy is not as ‘carbon neutral’ as some think, since the impact 
of  constructing  the  plant  in  a  remote  area  and  transporting 
mater ial to and from the plant is often not taken into account. 

This report provides a useful starting point in the debate on how 
we can switch on to a sustainable future.

Energy technology perspectives: in support of the G8 plan of action
ISBN 92-64-10986-2
International Energy Agency, Paris, 2006
English, 486 pp, €75 (paper), €65 (electronic)
Order: www.iea.org/books 

Over the past decade, concern about the state of Europe’s coastline has led to the con-
cept of integrated coastal zone management (ICZM), resulting in a number of EU initia-
tives. This report helps assess the state of European coastal areas. It provides evidence 
of  the  need  for  an  integrated,  long-term  approach,  balancing  the  environmental  and 
economic needs of coastal regions. It also takes into account the public’s concern about 
the environmental and socio-economic situation in European coastal areas.

The state of the environment in the coastal areas
ISSN 1725-9177
European Environment Agency, Copenhagen, 
2006 
English, 112 pp, free of charge
Download: http://reports.eea.europa.eu/
eea_report_2006_6/en/eea_report_6_2006.pdf

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TECHNOLOGY

EUROBAROMETER

Europeans warm 

to biotechnology

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There is widespread support within the EU for the use of bio-
technology to create new medicines or environmentally friend-
ly fuels, but genetically modiﬁ ed foods are likely to remain off 
the  menu  for  some  time,  according  to  a  Eurobarometer  poll 
– the EU’s public opinion gauge – looking at public perceptions 
of biotechnology.

The analysis of this 2005 Eurobarometer survey – the latest in a 
series that began in 1991 and the ﬁ rst to include citizens from all 
25 Member States – was presented in May 2006 by the Commis-
sion’s Research DG. It highlights in particular the shift in public 
perception  of  biotechnology  caused  by  recent  scientiﬁ c  break-
throughs.  More  than  half  of  citizens  (52%)  canvassed  believed 
that biotechnology would improve their quality of life.

Nanotechnology,  such  as  implantable  surgical  devices  and 
pharma cogenetics – tailor-made drugs based on individual DNA 
– were the stuff of science ﬁ ction until recently, but their poten-
tial has been rapidly embraced by the European public as both 
morally acceptable and useful, according to the survey. Nearly 
three-ﬁ fths  of  Europeans  did  not  object  to  the  idea  of  having 
their genetic data banked for research purposes.

This is in contrast to GM food, consumer attitudes to which are 
at a ten-year low. Although there has been a slight increase in 
the number of outright supporters of GM foods, the number of 
people  willing  to  overlook  their  potential  risk  because  of  their 
apparent beneﬁ ts has dropped sharply over the last three years. 
This is possibly, the analysts suggest, due to a backlash against 
the recent World Trade Organisation ruling obliging the EU to 
open up its markets to GM products from the US. 

Stemming the tide

The survey also asked the European public for its opinion on an-
other  controversial  technology  –  embryonic  stem  cell  research. 
The  issue  of  whether  to  fund  such  research  under  the  EU’s 

Personal medicine

 forthcoming Seventh Framework Programme (2007-2013) recent-
ly split both the European Parliament and Council, although fund-
ing was ﬁ nally approved following an eleventh-hour compromise. 

But  the  survey  results  suggest  that  the  opposition  shown  by 
some of the actors in the debate is not shared by the wider pub-
lic. Indeed, there is strong public support for stem cell research 
even in countries such as Germany and Italy whose politicians 
have led the calls for a ban on research funding. 

The survey shows that many Europeans want more and better 
information  before  they  make  up  their  mind  about  stem  cell 
research  –  in  particular  about  the  potential  beneﬁ ts  and  risks. 
Indeed, the wider issue of how biotechnology is both governed 
and communicated remains of great importance to the EU pub-
lic. Here, too, opinion is divided, with some countries, such as 
Hungary,  Lithuania  and  Sweden  believing  that  scientists  are 
best  placed  to  decide  how  such  technology  should  be  regu-
lated. Others, such as Italy, Slovenia and Austria are keen to see 
greater moral and ethical input from a wider public – although 
these latter countries remain in a minority. 

Trust in various biotech actors is growing. University researchers 
enjoy the trust of nearly three-quarters of respondents, while in-
dustry researchers elicit 64%. But the analysts suggest that, if the 
scientiﬁ c community wants to win over a greater proportion of 
the European public, it should increase efforts towards a public 
dialogue and engage with the public in shaping culturally sustain-
able research. The survey results show that citizens know more 
about biotechnology now than they did a decade ago, but that 
more than 40% still have little or no knowledge of the subject. 

Yet  the  poll  results  also  show  that  those  consumers  with  the 
most  knowledge  of  the  issues  surrounding  biotechnology  are 
the most likely to favour it. Schools in particular could do more, 
the authors suggest, as young people are already more open to 
new technology than older adults, and improving their know-
ledge  of  the  issues  could  help  them  keep  –  and  boost  –  this 
positive attitude as they grow up.

Europeans and biotechnology in 2005: patterns and trends
European Commission, Brussels, 2006
English, 85 pp, free of charge
Download: http://ec.europa.eu/research/press/2006/pdf/
pr1906_eb_64_3_ﬁ nal_report-may2006_en.pdf

Many people see personalised treatment, such as gene therapy, as the future of health-
care.  Pharmacogenics  –  the  study  of  genetic  variation  related  to  drug  response  –  and 
pharmacogenomics  –  the  study  of  genomics  and  proteomics  for  new  drug  targets  – 
could facilitate the development of such treatments. This prospective study focuses on 
identifying  key  players,  trends  and  outputs  of  academic  and  industrial  research  in  this 
area. It also assesses the clinical, social and economic impact of pharmacogenetics and 
pharmacogenomics in four EU Member States (Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands and 
the UK). Finally, it provides the reader with a comparative review of the regulatory and 
quality assurance frameworks on both sides of the Atlantic.

Pharmacogenetics and pharmacogenomics: state 
of the art and potential socio-economic impacts 
in the EU
ISBN 92-79-01901-5
IPTS, Sevilla, 2006 
English, 172 pp, free of charge
Download: http://www.jrc.es/home/pages/
detail.cfm?prs=1387

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WIRELESS NETWORKS

TECHNOLOGY

Exploring the wireless 

world with a safety net

Wireless  data  transfer  is 
playing an increasingly im-
portant role in many areas. 
What are the opportunities 
and threats involved in this 
rapidly  evolving  technolo-
gy? A report from the Joint 
Research Centre holds some 
of the answers.

remember, 

For those of us old enough 
to 
‘wireless’ 
used  to  mean  the  therm-
ionic  valve-driven  radio  re-
ceiver, normally kept in the 
living room. How the world 
has changed. The deﬁ nition 
of wireless technology is now totally different. It is now looked 
at as being a method of data transfer independent of ﬁ xed lines. 
Mobile phones, household or workplace connection-free access 
to computer networks, and so on.

The technology is progressing rapidly. This report, produced by 
the  Institute  for  Prospective  Technological  Studies,  part  of  the 
European Commission’s Joint Research Centre, attempts to map 
the  progress  of  the  technology  –  including  its  availability  and 
usage in the EU – and to recommend policies required to enable 
its successful and secure implementation.

Advanced  wireless  technology  (AWT)  ﬁ nds  use  in  a  myriad  of 
applications.  It  enables  police,  ﬁ re  and  ambulance  services  to 
establish so-called C4 (command / control / communication / 
coordination) systems. In health care, AWT can be used in such 
areas  as  telemedicine  and  remote  patient  monitoring.  Poten-
tially  dangerous  chemical  plants  can  be  kept  under  constant 
surveillance. And much, much more. 

Built-in protection

The opportunities are certainly there, but so are the threats. Just 
as there are menaces on the internet (see page 22 of this issue), 
wireless networks can crash, or be caused to crash. Citizen trust 
(in the case of emergency services) or consumer conﬁ dence (in 
commercial  applications)  could  be  damaged  and,  in  extreme 
cases, destroyed. Protection of AWT systems, the report points 

Logging on for health

out, is a major challenge, and should be designed-in from the 
beginning, not bolted on at the end as an afterthought.

Europe has a strong position in various of the competing, some-
times complementary, technologies and standards involved, but 
these  are  both  somewhat  fragmented.  Research  is  heading  in 
different directions, and while no single one will prevail, a de-
gree of coordination is required. Clearly, EU and Member State 
policy-makers have some serious thinking to do, and they could 
take a lead from other parts of the world.

Korea has made major progress in all areas of information and 
communications technologies in the past 30 years. In the ﬁ eld of 
AWTs, it is probably the world’s most advanced country, boast-
ing sophisticated networks and accounting for around 35% of 
global Wi-Fi hotspots (wireless access points to the internet via 
portable computer). This has been brought about by a govern-
ment initiative which effectively led to orchestration and devel-
opment of the technologies and markets, by adopting a policy 
of  supporting  interconnected  research  programmes,  with 
deﬁ ned economic aims.

Mapping European wireless trends and drivers
ISBN 92-79-02035-8
European Commission, Brussels, 2006
English, 84 pp, free of charge
Download: ftp://ftp.jrc.es/pub/EURdoc/eur22250en.pdf

Good health is a person’s most precious possession. That is why the EU strives to help 
ensure  the  maximum  level  of  healthcare  for  European  citizens.  Information  and  com-
munication technologies (ICT) are playing an increasingly important role in the provision 
of health services (also known as e-health). For the last two decades, EU-backed research 
activities  have  placed  Europe  in  a  leading  position  in  the  use  of  health  networks  and 
electronic health records, contributing to the so-called e-health industry. This compre-
hensive brochure provides European citizens with an overview of the state of the art and 
prospects for the future.

ICT for health and i2010 – transforming the Euro-
pean healthcare landscape – towards a strategy 
for ICT for Health
ISBN 92-894-7060-7
European Commission, Brussels, 2006 
English, 12 pp, free of charge
Download: http://ec.europa.eu/
information_society/activities/health/docs/
publications/ictforhealth-and-i2010-ﬁ nal.pdf

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TECHNOLOGY

INFORMATION SOCIETY

Making the information 
society a safer place to be

Businesses, 
individuals 
and  public  administra-
tions  in  Europe  still  un-
derestimate  the  risks  of 
insufﬁ ciently  protecting 
networks  and  informa-
tion. The European Com-
mission  has  produced  a 
communication  to  pro-
mote  greater  awareness 
through  an  open  and 
inclusive  multi-stake-
holder  dialogue  on  a 
new IT Security Strategy 
for Europe.

The  Commission  believes  that  an  open  dialogue  involving  all 
stakeholders is essential for building consumer trust and conﬁ -
dence and for supporting the widespread take-up of digital ser-
vices. In its policy document, the Commission aims to promote 
a general security consciousness and an awareness of the actions 
that people and organisations need to take for themselves. 

“The nature of the threat is changing and so must our response,” 
said Information Society and Media Commissioner Viviane Red-
ing. “In the past, hackers were motivated by a desire to show 
off, whereas today, many threats come from criminal activities 
and are motivated by proﬁ t. What we need is a renewed strat-
egy based on dialogue, partnership and empowerment.”

All stakeholders need reliable information on network and infor-
mation security incidents to help them take the steps necessary 
to ensure their own security and safety. A key role in promot-
ing  a  greater  awareness  of  security  is  to  be  played  by  public 
authorities, although it is largely up to the private sector to pro-
vide solutions. In addition, the Commission attaches particular 
importance to research and development activities.

Towards a dynamic approach

Both the public and private sector have important and complemen-
tary roles to play in the development of a security culture in Europe. 
To this end, the Commission’s Communication proposes a strategy 
based on three pillars: dialogue, partnership and empowerment.

The  dialogue  embraces  benchmarking  national  network  and 
information security, as well as identifying best practices to im-
prove awareness. It also seeks to promote a societal debate on 
how best to exploit existing tools and regulatory instruments to 
balance the need for enhanced security and the protection of 
fundamental rights, such as privacy.

Novel partnerships are needed to engage each actor. By ‘part-
nership’  the  Commission  means  developing  working  relation-
ships with Member States and stakeholders to develop a data-
collection framework, establishing agreements and mechanisms 
to disseminate information on the ICT security industry, and ex-
amining the feasibility of a European information and alert sys-
tem via a multilingual portal. To this end, the European Network 
and Information Security Agency will play a key facilitator role.

In the empowerment process, stakeholders are encouraged to 
take up their respective responsibility. Governments, in addition 
to  being  major  users,  are  primarily  responsible  for  setting  the 
right framework conditions. The private sector is largely respon-
sible for delivering solutions, services and security products. In-
dividual users are responsible for the vast majority of computers 
and information sources, making them key actors in developing 
a general culture of security. The Commission believes that this 
‘multi-stakeholder’  approach  will  ensure  that  the  European 
information society really does cater for all... securely.

Finally, the Commission is pursuing a number of related pol icies. 
These include, in particular, the protection of personal data and 
privacy over electronic communications, the review of the regu-
latory  framework  for  electronic  communications  and  the  ﬁ ght 
against  ‘cyber  crime’.  The  Commission  attaches  particular  im-
portance  to  international  co-operation  for  creating,  fostering 
and  enhancing  a  global  culture  of  security,  and  is  following 
the approach agreed at the World Summit on the Information 
Society in Tunis in 2005.

A strategy for a secure information society. Dialogue, partnership and 
empowerment 
COM (2006) 251
European Commission, Brussels, 2006
English, 11 pp, free of charge
Download: http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/
doc/com2006251.pdf 
Background information: http://ec.europa.eu/
information_society/newsroom/cf/itemlongdetail.cfm?item_id=2766

A picture of e-health

This booklet presents a compilation of EU-funded e-health research projects. It also ex-
plores succinctly the future directions of this area of R&D, under the forthcoming Seventh 
Framework Programme (FP7). The projects, identiﬁ ed by different colours, are regrouped 
under three thematic areas: personal health management systems and services based on 
biosensors;  tools  for  health  professionals;  and  biomedical  Informatics.  The  projects  are 
also listed in alphabetical order in each section.

ICT for Health – resource book of e-health pro-
jects – Sixth Research and Development Frame-
work Programme 2002-2006
ISBN 92-894-7060-7
European Commission, Brussels, 2006, 
English, free of charge
Download: http://ec.europa.eu/
information_society/activities/health/
research/projects/index_en.htm

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COMPETITIVENESS

Surveying state intervention 
Ideas  over  the  effectiveness  and  usefulness  of  state  aid  have 
changed  considerably  in  recent  decades.  State  aid,  which  is 
prohibited  by  the  EU  treaties  unless  explicitly  authorised,  can 
prove to be both a very effective incentive and a very dangerous 
instrument. Based on the principle of “less and better targeted 
state  aid”,  the  Commission’s  State  Aid  Action  Plan  aims  to 
improve the effectiveness and transparency of the EU state aid 
regime.  This  study,  carried  out  at  European  level,  reviews  the 
application of European state aid rules by national courts. The 
second section examines the effectiveness of measures taken at 
national level to enforce decisions on state aid recovery.

Study on the enforcement of state aid law at national level
ISBN 92-79-01715-2
European Commission, Brussels, 2006
English, 677 pp, €50 (paper)
Free download: http://bookshop.europa.eu/eubookshop/FileCache/
PUBPDF/KD7506493ENC/KD7506493ENC_002.pdf

Serving the EU economy
Trade  has  always  been  the  EU’s  engine  for  growth  and 
development and the European Union continues to be the most 
important global player in international trade in services (ITS). 
This issue of the regular series Statistics in Focus uses data from 
Eurostat and IMF to analyse EU trade in services over the period 
1998 to 2004. It shows that the USA is the Union’s main trading 
partner  and  that  the  EU-25  has  increased  its  external  surplus 
signiﬁ cantly, with the UK being the biggest contributor to extra-
EU transactions. 

EU international trade in services in 2004
ISSN 1024-4298
European Commission, Eurostat, Brussels, 2006 
English, French, German, 7 pp, free of charge
Download: http://bookshop.eu.int/eubookshop/
FileCache/PUBPDF/KSNJ06008ENC/
KSNJ06008ENC_002.pdf

INNOVATION TRENDS

Banding together in the Baltic
ScanBalt  is  a  coordinating  platform  with  the  ambition  of 
becoming  Europe’s  ﬁ rst  ‘meta-region’.  The  aim  of  ScanBalt 
BioRegion  –  which  covers  Denmark,  Estonia,  Finland,  Iceland, 
Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Sweden, North Germany and 
North-western Russia – is to ensure the global competitiveness 
of  the  region’s  life  science  and  biotechnology.  This  report 
outlines the ScanBalt’s achievements from 2001 to the present 
day, including its activities and key players. It also presents the 
platform’s 2006-2008 strategy to achieve the Lisbon objectives.

ScanBalt Bioregion – Creating a knowledge-based bio-economy
ScanBalt, Copenhagen, 2006
English, 28 pp, free of charge
Download: http://www.scanbalt.org/graphics/ScanBalt/
Reports/ScanBalt%20annual_Report%20for%20print.pdf

Gateway to Polish innovation
Poland is working hard to get its innovation performance into 
pole position. Towards that end, the Polish Agency for Enterprise 
Development  (PAED)  launched  a  dedicated  innovation  portal 
last  year  which  has  been  a  hit  with  Polish  entrepreneurs  and 
other people interested in innovation. Since 2005, it has clocked 
up  more  than  160  000  visitors.  The  gateway  provides  reliable 

IN BRIEF

information  on  actions  undertaken  in  the  innovation  ﬁ eld.  It 
covers  such  issues  as  access  to  new  technologies,  ﬁ nancing 
innovation, initiatives in the ﬁ eld of academic entrepreneurship 
and  other  project  and  programmes  supporting  innovation 
development in Poland. 

Portal Innowacji
http://www.pi.gov.pl/ (only in Polish)

KNOWLEDGE SOCIETY

The state of e-citizenship
Despite  their  rapid  growth  over  the  past  decade,  information 
and communication technologies (ICTs) are not used evenly by 
the  whole  of  society.  Diffusion  has  been  slowed  down  by  the 
lack  of  access  or  proper  training  of  certain  groups  of  citizens. 
This  edition  of  Statistics in Focus  interprets  the  results  of  the 
2005  Community  survey  on  ICT  usage  in  households  and  by 
individuals,  and  provides  an  overview  of  the  current  state  of 
e-inclusion in the EU’s information society.

How skilled are Europeans at using computers and the internet?
ISSN 1561-4840
European Commission, Eurostat, Brussels, 2006 
English, French, 7 pp, free of charge
Download: http://bookshop.eu.int/eubookshop/FileCache/
PUBPDF/KSNP06017ENC/KSNP06017ENC_002.pdf

The path to greater equality
Although women achieve academic success on a par with men 
and are ﬁ nding themselves better represented in the workplace, 
numerous gender issues still need to be tackled at the national 
and  European  levels,  including  violence,  unemployment,  and 
under-representation. This road map outlines six priority action 
areas  for  EU  action  on  gender  equality  for  the  2006-2010 
period: equal economic independence; reconciliation of private 
and  professional  life;  equal  representation  in  decision-making; 
eradication  of  gender-based  violence;  elimination  of  gender 
stereotypes; and promotion of gender equality in external and 
development policies. 

A road map for equality between women and men 2006-2010
ISBN 92-79-00707-6
European Commission, Employment and Social Affairs DG, Brussels, 2006
English, 38 pp, free of charge
Download: http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/publications/
2006/ke7205596_en.pdf

ENVIRONNEMENT

Making light of an energy dilemma
Lighting  consumes  more  electricity  globally  than  the  output 
of  hydro  or  nuclear  power,  resulting  in  huge  CO2  emissions. 
In July 2005, the G8’s Gleneagles Plan of Action mandated the 
International  Energy  Agency  (IEA)  to  identify  scenarios  for  a 
more sustainable future. This comprehensive study reviews the 
impact energy-efﬁ ciency policies for lighting to date and maps 
out  the  actions  needed  in  the  future.  This  ﬁ rst  global  analysis 
also includes a thorough review of technologies and policies to 
reduce the energy consumed by lighting.

Light’s labour’s lost – policies for energy-efﬁ cient lighting
ISBN 92-64-10951-X
International Energy Agency, Paris, 2006 
English, 350 pp, €100 (paper); €80 (pdf)
Order: http://www.iea.org/w/bookshop/
add.aspx?id=302

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BOOKMARKS

FURTHER SURFING

Space in cyberspace

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B
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A
B
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0
6
-
0
0
3
-
E
N
C

-

Information on EU-funded space research can be found at:
(cid:129)  Aeronautics and space under FP6 (2002-2006) 
http://cordis.europa.eu/fp6/aerospace.htm
(cid:129)  Security and space under FP7 (2007-2013) 

http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/space.htm

The main players in space include:
(cid:129)  The European Space Agency: 

www.esa.int

(cid:129)  The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA): 

www.nasa.org

(cid:129)  The Russian Federal Space Agency (RKA): 

www.federalspace.ru

(cid:129)  The China National Space Administration: 

http://202.106.142.5/main_e.asp

(cid:129)  The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency: 

www.jaxa.jp

There is a lot of information on space and European space 
policy out there. Here are some interesting links to explore...

The  Enterprise  and  Industry  Directorate-General’s  European 
Space  Policy  page  can  be  found  at:  http://ec.europa.eu/
enterprise/space/index_en.html 

It contains news and background information on space policy.

Details on the Global Monitoring for Environment and Secur-
ity (GMES) initiative can be accessed at (http://ec.europa.eu/
comm/space/gmes/index_en.htm)

More on the Galileo global positioning system can be accessed at: 
http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/energy_transport/galileo/index_en.htm

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ENT 5 0209 EABS October 06.indd   24

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