Innovation as a key factor of economic growth in the enlarged European Union

The research field of innovation lies at the point of intersection between science and economics. Technology and innovations are decisive factors for the international competitiveness of an economy. The European Union has therefore given priority to this field in the framework of its Lisbon Strategy: It proclaimed the goal to close the technological gap to the USA until 2010 and “to become the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world.” Consequently, the support for knowledge and innovation constitutes one of the eight key measures of the Lisbon Programme which has been adopted by the EU Commission in 2005. In the individual member states, research and development are partly carried out in diverse forms and structures, and the member states are situated on different levels of development. Indeed, the European Innovation Scoreboard 2007 shows that the gap between the EU and the USA is gradually declining. But while some of the EU 15 member states, among them Germany, show good and very good results when compared internationally, the EU's new member states in Eastern and Central Europe are still displaying significant weaknesses in the innovation process despite good educational systems and sporadic top performances in research and development. The continuing catching-up process of these countries will greatly depend on the extend to which they are able to improve the innovation ability of their economics. Since their accession to the EU in 2004 and 2007, the new member states have been integrated into the Lisbon process. They benefit from programmes and measures targeted at innovation ability. At the same time, they have begun to transform their innovation systems with the objective to, on the one hand, better complete the assigned tasks, and on the other hand, become compatible with the innovation systems of other EU member states. This publication presents the results of the conference “Innovation as a Key Factor of Economic Growth in the Enlarged EU”, hosted on November 20-21, 2008 under the aegis of Dr. Annette Schavan, Germany's Federal Minister of Education and Research. The conference's objective was to delineate current innovation policies and innovation systems in the EU's new member states in Central and Eastern Europe; the focus of attention was the Czech Republic, but beyond that, contributions about the situation in Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria and Estonia were presented. Moreover, participants debated specific questions relating to technology transfer within Central and Eastern European Countries as well as issues and approaches to technology transfer between older member states, Germany in particular, and new member states.