18 / 07 / 2024
EARTO Congratulates Ursula von der Leyen on her re-election as European Commission President
Following today’s European Parliament Plenary Session, EARTO congratulates Ms Ursula von der Leyen on her re-election as President of the European Commission for a second term.
In her Political Guidelines for the next European Commission 2024−2029, President von der Leyen clearly identifies her priority to promote Europe’s industrial competitiveness with a “new European Prosperity Plan putting research, development and innovation at the heart of our economy”. EARTO can only support such a priority.
EARTO especially welcomes the understandings beyond this priority which are laid down in her guidelines as follows:
- “We will increase our research spending to focus more on strategic priorities.”
- “Europe must also be at the cutting edge between emerging science, tech and industry, the nexus that will make this tech revolution faster and more transformative.”
- “To lead on innovation, we need to create the conditions for researchers to thrive. This means providing the infrastructure and innovative laboratories they need to test and develop ideas through new public-private partnerships, such as joint undertakings.”
We support President von der Leyen’s statement that “The future of the clean and cutting-edge tech industry must be made in Europe. This is why I will put forward a new European Competitiveness Fund as part of our proposal for a new and reinforced budget in the next multiannual financial framework.”
As innovative problem-solvers, Research & Technology Organisations (RTOs) are key to what many see as the next production revolution, yielding cheaper and cleaner energy, new methods transforming manufacturing and services, shaping the digital transformation and developing novel responses to social and environmental challenges. As key actors in the European RD&I ecosystem and innovation-driven strategic value chains, RTOs have a prominent role in fostering EU competitiveness by supporting EU technological leadership.
In this context, EARTO and its 350+ RTOs’ members across Europe are ready to support the further thinking and elaboration of a new EU Competitiveness Fund. Among others, such a fund should 1) further utilise RTOs’ capabilities to define further industrial needs in terms of technology development across Europe, and 2) support RTOs in continuously developing and expanding/extending/increasing the range of their capabilities (innovative labs/technology infrastructures and skills).
Let’s work together to boost Europe’s competitiveness: our European RTOs are already in action!
