“Europe and its citizens must understand that their lifestyle is at risk”, and “the road to prosperity through research and innovation remains open if the heads of the governments take vigorous action, before it is too late”. After the informal summit of the 25 in Hampton Court, the European Union appointed a committee of independent experts, presided over by the former Finnish Premier, Esko Aho. Today, in Brussels, Aho submitted his first evaluation of the current situation of research in member countries. “The current reality – according to the experts – is unbearable in the light of global competition”. And the EU is far from investing 3 per cent of its gross domestic product in this field. 3 per cent is actually considered necessary to face competition from the United States, Japan, China and other developing countries. Aho’s report was supported by the Research Commissioner, Janez Potocnik. According to the study, the funds destined to research, innovation and new technologies “are still the same since the year 2000”. The document points out the urgent need to strengthen common action (they will talk about that during the EU summit on March 23rd and 24th, dedicated to the Strategy of Lisbon), and in particular, the document underlines the necessity to start projects in a few key sectors such as “electronic health, pharmaceutical industry, energy resources, environment, transport, logistics”. Finally, the document suggests appointing just one EU officer in charge of research and innovation, so as to “coordinate the initiatives of national governments, enterprises and universities”.
