INNOVATION
(a)
(21664)
11667/00
COM(00) 567
(b)
(21663)
11666/00
COM(00) 1564
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Commission Communication: Innovation in a knowledge-driven
economy.
Commission Staff Working Paper: Trends in European Innovation
Policy and the Climate for Innovation in the Union.
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| Legal base:
| — |
| |
| Documents originated:
| (both) 20 September 2000
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| Forwarded to the Council:
| (both) 21 September 2000
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| Deposited in Parliament:
| (both) 12 October 2000
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| Department: |
Trade and Industry |
| Basis of consideration:
| EMs of 27 October 2000
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| Previous Committee Report:
| None |
| To be discussed in Council:
| 5 December 2000 |
| Committee's assessment:
| Politically important |
| Committee's decision:
| (Both) Cleared |
Background
36.1 The Commission's 1995 Green Paper on
Innovation defined "innovation"as the "renewal
and enlargement of the range of products and services and the
associated markets; the establishment of new methods of production,
supply and distribution; the introduction of changes in management,
work organisation, and the working conditions and skills of the
workforce".
36.2 The importance of innovation was highlighted
by the Lisbon European Council in March 2000. Promoting innovation
was seen as a key element in achieving the strategic goal set
by the European Council for the Union to become the most competitive
and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world. In that connection,
the European Council drew attention to two requirements:
The documents
36.3 Document (a) — a Commission Communication
— provides analysis of Member States' policies and innovation
performance and sets out recommendations for action by Member
States and the Commission under five broad objectives:
— achieving coherence
of innovation policies;
— promoting a regulatory environment conducive
to innovation;
— encouraging the creation and growth of
innovation enterprises;
— improving key interfaces in the innovation
system; and
— developing a society open to innovation.
36.4 The Communication draws on analysis
in the supporting document (the Commission Staff Working Paper).
36.5 The Communication makes ten recommendations
to Member States linked to the five broad objectives as above.
It also includes a new "European Innovation Scoreboard"
comprising a set of indicators which together give an assessment
of Europe's innovative performance, analysed Member State by Member
State. It is described as one component of a much broader benchmarking
exercise by the Commission's Enterprise Directorate covering European
enterprise policy and competitiveness as a whole. The Commission
claims that the Scoreboard "allows relative strengths and
weaknesses of the innovation performances of the Member States
to be assessed, and, for a limited number of indicators for which
the relevant statistical data is available, to compare the performances
of the European Union with those of the United States and Japan".
The Commission says that the Scoreboard is designed to capture
the main drivers of a knowledge-based economy plus several measures
of innovation output. The indicators are grouped into four categories:
— human resources;
— creation of new knowledge;
— transmission and application of knowledge;
and
— innovation finance, output and markets.
The Minister's view
36.6 In his Explanatory Memorandum of 27
October 2000, the Minister for Science, Department of Trade and
Industry (Lord Sainsbury) says that the Communication is in line
with the approach of benchmarking and disseminating best practice
which was strongly endorsed by the UK and other Member States
at the Lisbon European Council. He notes that the overall policy
direction of the Communication is consistent with the UK priorities
set out in the Government's recent White Paper "Excellence
and Opportunity — a Science and Innovation Policy for the
21st Century" (Cm 4814). The Minister says that, in terms
of performance on a range of indicators covered in the Innovation
Scoreboard, the UK occupies "a solid middle-ranking position".
He says that, although the complexity of the drivers underpinning
innovation systems means that the Scoreboard can only provide
a general outline of a nation's capabilities, it does identify
broad areas of improvement in the UK's innovation performance.
He adds that the summary of policy trends in Member States provides
interesting examples of best practice and that the Government
will be looking at these in more depth to see if there are lessons
to be learnt. He says that the recommendations for Council action
will be pursued under existing mechanisms, such as the Commission's
multi-annual programme for SMEs and the Fifth Framework Innovation/SME
Programme.
36.7 The Communication will be discussed
at the Industry Council on 5 December 2000.
Conclusion
36.8 As the Commission says in its Communication,
"primarily it is up to European enterprises to pick up the
challenge of innovation, to show their creativity and use it to
conquer new markets". However, the document indicates clearly
the extent to which governments can create a conducive climate
and stimulate the supply of appropriate human and capital resources.
The new Scoreboard may act as a further catalyst to the development
of policies in the UK supporting innovation. As the Minister says,
the Scoreboard shows the UK in a broadly middling position on
most indicators. On four of the 16 indicators, the UK result is
more than 20% above the EU average, and it is 20% below on only
one indicator (new market capitalisations as a percentage of GDP).
36.9 We report on these documents in
order to draw attention to the new innovation Scoreboard. However,
we have no questions to raise and clear the documents accordingly.
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