The European Parliament discusses and debates just about everything, even on issues that the EU has no competence on. The parliamentary Group of the EPP therefore takes a position on everything, but its starting point has always been job creation. If, by way of example, the European Parliament is discussing data protection, the EPP Group’s first instinct would be ‘How will this is affect Start-ups, Self-employed and SMEs? How will it affect the business environment generally? The Group is of course in favor of data protection and worked hard to reinforce rights, duties and obligations in this area, but for us, these rights do not come at the expense of a conducive entrepreneurial environment.
If one really wants to make a positive difference in people’s lives, creating a conducive environment for business to flourish is certainly a good way to start. A favorable environment for investment and entrepreneurship will lead to job creation and increased economic growth. For this reason, the party has always pushed for investment in education, technology, and research and development (R&D). Particularly, the group is committed to ensure that all of which create conditions that favour SMEs, family firms, start-ups and entrepreneurs.
According to the EPP, a competitive economy is rooted in knowledge and new digital services. Thus the economy should provide the society with the freedom to innovate and most importantly, it should also provide the necessary tools to develop new ideas.
Indeed, this is the kind of economy Europe needs, and the one the group is striving to achieve.
This week, the Council adopted an innovation investing package as part of the Horizon 2020 programme. This package is composed of a set of Public-Private Partnerships which will allow for research initiatives to take place in the next seven years through cooperation among different organizations which would not be able to conduct this kind of research on their own.
The Horizon 2020 programme is the biggest EU Research and Innovation programme. By combining public funds with private investment, the programme seeks to couple research and innovation in order to achieve excellent science, industrial leadership and tackling societal challenges.
The initiative was designed with significant emphasis on a reduction of red tape, which has lowered the costs of start-up projects and allows them to start right away, thus achieving results faster. The programme counts with €80 billion of funding available over seven years (2014 to 2020) plus funds to be attracted from private investors.
The newly-adopted innovation investment package, which was backed by the European Parliament in April, will contribute to pool research and innovation investments up to 22 billion Euros in sectors facing major societal challenges in the next seven years. It will bring together not only large business and the European Union, but also universities, laboratories, and SMEs in order to encourage long-term, sometimes risky research for new ideas in areas such as air, energy, electronics and medicine.
This package, which implements the Innovation Union strategy, and the results it provides will stimulate the creation of growth and jobs, as well as tackle environmental and other problems which are of present concern to Europe and the world.
Out of the nine partnerships adopted on Tuesday, most of the investment will go to five of them, which deal with innovative medicines, aeronautics, bio-based industries, fuel cells and hydrogen and electronics.
The five partnerships which will be receiving the largest amount of funding are known as "Joint Technology Initiatives" (JTI). A JTI is a public-private partnership which is formed to fund large scale, longer-term, riskier research.
For example, JTIs involving bio-based industries will seek substitutes for fossil fuels; those for aeronautics will work to reduce the environmental impact of the next generation of aircrafts. Partnerships in the field of innovative medicines aim to improve European citizens’ health and wellbeing by providing new and more effective diagnostics and treatments such as new antimicrobial treatments.
Four partnerships will conduct research with member states willing to pool their resources to address topics dealing with SMEs, clinical trials in Africa, metrology and improving the quality of life for the elderly.
The goal of the innovation investment package is to make it easier for the public and private sectors to work together in delivering innovation, thus improving Europe's competitiveness at a global level.
Article 185 of the EU treaty, which outlines the Union's ability to "make provision" for cooperation with various member states in research and development programmes, is the article which was used to establish the legal framework for these partnerships. The EU provides financial support to the joint implementation of the national research programmes involved.
Members of a partnership are required to outline commitments and objectives to be achieved within a period of seven years. "They need to establish their research and innovation agendas and fund projects through competitive calls for proposals."
David Casa is the PN EP head of delegation and is contesting the upcoming May election