Research and economic innovation slowdown Community Europe lags behind in the areas of innovation and research as compared to its world competitors such as USA, Japan and Korea, while it is slowly advancing towards its target of investing 3% of GDP in research and development. These are the findings of the Innovation Union Competitiveness report, drawn up every two years by the EU Commission. The report shows that there has been a slight increase in investments compared to 2009, but not enough to keep up with the global pace. In fact, the Commission highlights that only Seventeen Member States were able to maintain or increase their R&D budgets in 2009 and sixteen in 2010, although in times of economic crisis, accumulated investment in research and innovation has a counter-cyclical effect. The Commission underlined the critical areas: investments in innovation have to be “smarter”; the development of highly-skilled people needs to be matched with the needs of business"; ensuring that "integration and internationalisation of research increases returns on investments". The Report points out: "The EU needs to catch up with the US in the research intensity of high-tech and medium high-tech industries": countries such as Austria and Denmark are positive examples. CoE (PACE): North Africa and the Middle East The session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), due to take place in Strasbourg next June 20-24 will focus on the situation of countries in North Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Europe. Addresses by Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych (Tuesday 21) and Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan (Wednesday 22), as well as by the President of the Palestinian National Authority Mahmoud Abbas (Thursday 23), will be among highlights of the plenary session. "Drawing Arab countries close to Europe and showing them the advantages of democracy is one of the objectives of the parliamentary session", states PACE in a communiqué. The innovation consists in the Partner for Democracy status" to extra-EU countries "determined to adopt the Convention on Human Rights as their social principle". The first request for the new Status was submitted by the Parliament of Morocco. Other items on the agenda include the upheavals in Tunisia, the problem of the rescue at sea of refugees, which includes "sharing responsibilities towards asylum-seekers and refugees in Europe". The follow-up of the Report titled "Living together in 21st century Europe" drawn up by the Group of Eminent Persons of the Council of Europe, features "concrete proposals to be adopted by the Committee of Ministers for the promotion of intercultural dialogue and the integration of minority groups".The winners of EU Cultural Heritage awards Refurbished Antwerp Central Station, Belgium, the revitalisation of the major part of a former monastery complex, which now serves as cultural centre, the protection of castles and ancient fortresses in the Czech Republic are among the 27 winners (one for each Member State) of the 2011 EU Prize for Cultural Heritage, announced by the European Commission and Europa Nostra, presented on June 9-10. The ceremony, that took place in Amsterdam, celebrated excellence in cultural heritage conservation, ranging from the restoration of buildings and their adaptation to new uses, to urban and rural landscape rehabilitation, archaeological site interpretations, and care for art collections. The awards were presented by Androulla Vassiliou, European Commissioner for Culture. This year’s event also examined education projects for the preservation of Europe’s urban, cultural and artistic heritage (for information log on: http://www.europanostra.org/). The awards have been supported by the Culture Programme of the EU. The Culture Programme has invested 26 million in co-financing heritage projects since 2007. Six Grand Prix laureates were selected among the 27 winners in recognition of "extraordinary achievements in the conservation of cultural heritage", each of which were awarded with 10 thousand euro. Winners include the Weald & Downland open air Museum in Chichester, United Kingdom, "for creating a centre for training in historic building conservation with workshops in a wide range of topics, including timber framing, repair of historic brickwork, lime and other issues". Prize recipients include Professor Tomás Durdík, who "for 25 years, has made an extraordinary contribution to the research, conservation and protection of the castles and fortifications in the Czech Republic" and the architectural heritage of the buffer zone in the walled city of Nicosia, Cyprus, "an excellent example of a conservation project in a sensitive area of Europe as a collaboration between the two major communities of Nicosia, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots".
