Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-05-11-Speech-3-652-000"
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"en.20110511.37.3-652-000"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, research and innovation policy is one of the three main pillars of the polices of the European Union. I would also say that it will increasingly become a strategic tool that is absolutely essential for our future. Why? Because we have the good fortune, or the challenge, of living at the dawn of a change of civilisation.
Think about this. We need to ensure the conditions of a decent existence for all, not only here and now, but elsewhere, too, and for future generations. This, in itself, is already a major challenge. On top of this, however, for the first time in the history of mankind, we need to do this within the physical limits of the planet. This, of course, radically transforms the context.
Our conviction is that Europe can be a world leader in this profound transformation, not only of our infrastructure and organisations, but also, and more importantly, of our way of producing, consuming and living. For us, it is by being right up there among the leaders that we will best ensure the competitiveness of the European Union. This gives me the opportunity to say that competitiveness is not an objective in itself. Our objective is to be in a position to meet the challenges which, let us not forget, threaten the very existence of mankind on this planet. If we are among the best, our competitiveness will, however, be assured.
A great many things have been said with which we agree. There are just two points I would like to raise.
Firstly, we need to maximise the impact of each euro spent. This requires better alignment between the different EU policies and between what is done at the level of the European Union and what is done at the level of the Member States. This means that we need to progress from a logic where the general rule is subsidy and exemption, lending and risk sharing, to a logic where catalysing private investment by using public funds is a major objective. The best way of doing that is not always by contributing non-repayable money.
Finally, we must have the courage to put an end to a number of huge white elephants, such as the ITER project which, in fact, gobbles up a substantial amount of European research money – EUR 7 billion out of EUR 60 billion – just imagine! We need to put an end to that."@en1
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