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# 92003E0468

**WRITTEN QUESTION E-0468/03 by Juan Naranjo Escobar (PPE-DE) to the Commission. Community productivity.** 
  
*Official Journal 011 E , 15/01/2004 P. 0088 - 0088*

  

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0468/03

by Juan Naranjo Escobar (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(20 February 2003)

Subject: Community productivity

One of the fundamental objectives of the Lisbon strategy is to increase the EU's productivity.

The European Union's low productivity, combined with a high rate of unemployment and the worrying slowness in technological innovation, is putting the Union's economy at a competitive disadvantage compared with the US and Japan.

There are important research centres in the Member States which are studying and carefully considering the issue of productivity, and their reflections should help us to adopt proposals to improve the Community's productivity.

Does the Commission consider that we are taking full advantage of the information provided by these centres?

Answer given by Mr Solbes Mira on behalf of the Commission

(25 March 2003)

The Commission pays close attention to the findings of research centres in the Member States and also to those based in other parts of the world. Such research broadens the base of information which is used to formulate policy. The Commission is in contact with these research centres through networks, seminars, studies and reading the academic literature.

As regards productivity some examples of relevant research centres are the Groningen Growth and Development Centre, the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) and the Commission's own Joint Research Centre which has an Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (IPTS). In particular, IPTS uses external advisory groups, such as a group of eminent economists including Nobel Prize winner Robert Solow, William Branson, David Ulph, Jean-Jaques Laffont and Christian von Weiszacker and also operates a series of networks such as the European Science and Technology Observatory (ESTO) network which draws on the expertise of more than 40 institutions including all the major European think-tanks. An example of Commission contact with research centres is the Joint Research Centre's upcoming workshop on information and communication technology and productivity at which researchers from different centres will be speaking and attending. They will discuss the possible contributions of information and communications technologies to differences in productivity growth within Europe and between Europe and the United States.

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