EC head says IT initiative not working

European Commission President Jose Manuel Durao Barroso said Tuesday the Lisbon Agenda — Europe’s plan to increase jobs and growth based on innovation and information technology — failed to translate into European-wide policy making.

Barroso said Europe still lags behind the U.S. when it comes to innovation, despite laying out a detailed plan 10 years ago to increase competitiveness.

“The original Lisbon strategy had no lack of analysis, no shortage of targets,” Barroso said. “But let’s be frank, it did not work.”

Barroso made the remarks before about 300 government officials at the Government Leaders Forum, a two-day conference sponsored by Microsoft in Lisbon.

Several European countries are innovative, but on the whole a gap remains as new companies are emerging in Asia that are changing the nature of competition. “European innovation is just not dynamic enough,” Barroso said.

Last week, the Commission published a report on the progress since the Lisbon Agenda was relaunched last year, Barroso said. Member states have each put forward a national reform program to help meet the plan’s goals, he said.

Research and technology are two components of innovation, but those must result in a transfer of knowledge and the eventual creation of new products and services. Europe needs to better target investment while developing a skilled workforce and effective markets to make the best use of innovation, Barroso said.

The European Union is moving on several initiatives to remedy the problem, Barroso said. Organizations and programs such as the Research Framework Program, the European Research Council and the Competitiveness Research Council are aiding small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) with financing and dealing with regulatory issues.

Two-thirds of the innovating companies in Europe are large companies, Barroso said. The potential of SMBs is underexploited, he said, and real partnerships are needed between universities, public research institutes and firms.

He also called for a clearer chain between research and results. “Far too often, innovation does not bear the fruit it should in terms of commercial benefits,” Barroso said. “Something gets lost in the chain between the innovator and the consumer.”