The European Union’s vision of building a hi-tech economy could be left in the dirt if businesses do not spend more on research and development (R&D).
That is the conclusion of a European Commission report comparing R&D in the EU with that of its competitors.
Europe will be outdone by China, Japan and South Korea unless EU member states take urgent action, it says.
The report says boosting R&D spend is essential if Europe’s economy is to remain competitive in the future.
In 2000, the European Council set out the Lisbon Strategy, an action plan designed to tackle low productivity and stagnating economic growth in the EU.
It sought to make Europe “the most competitive and the most dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world” by 2010.
Key to this vision was boosting investment in R&D to 3% of GDP by that same deadline. But Europe looks set to miss this objective.
The report, which contains new data on Europe and its main competitors, says that R&D intensity (R&D expenditure as a percentage of GDP) in Europe has stagnated since the mid-1990s.
At the same time, Japan, China or South Korea have been able to increase substantially their R&D effort.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6741195.stm
Full report at http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/11_06_07_eu_science_report.pdf
