EU Innovation Policy: How to Escape the Middle Technology Trap? (Presentation of the Report)

ifo Institute/EconPol Europe: Economists Call for Reform of EU Research Policy

A report by a group of economists from France, Germany and Italy criticizes the EU’s innovation policy and the direction of spending on research and development in Europe and calls for changes. “The EU is losing the innovation race, thereby giving up on economic well-being and surrendering regulatory and geopolitical influence. Its complete absence in the group of top-20 tech companies and top-20 start-ups is ominous. It spends too little on R&D and focuses on mid-tech,” says Nobel laureate Jean Tirole from the Toulouse School of Economics. ifo President Clemens Fuest adds: “Investment in the EU research is concentrated in the automotive industry and similar sectors, while Europe is being left ever further behind in growing high-tech sectors such as the digital economy. The continent is caught in a mid-tech trap.”