As the economic crisis continues to get worse, creativity and innovation are key to strengthening Europe's competitiveness and must remain on the EU agenda beyond the current European Year, leading EU politicians stressed at the launch event in Prague this week.

Investing in the future

Special ambassadors to the European Year, who attended the launch, welcomed the commissioner's call to make additional funding available to improve the bloc's competitiveness, suggesting that it should be spent on issues such as human capital creation, productivity growth and environmental protection.

"Innovation can provide good tools to overcome environmental challenges," said Nokia's Executive Vice-Chairman Esko Aho, a former prime minister of Finland who is chairing the ambassadors' group.

Aho urged EU governments to refrain from cutting R&D budgets at times of crisis to provide short-term solutions, stressing that doing so would be a "great mistake".

Citing Finland as an example, Aho noted that in the early 1990s when he was the country's prime minister, he had to take tough decisions to reverse dramatic negative growth of 7%.

But looking back, he admitted that reforms would not have been taken without crises. "Crises make good circumstances to move on," said Aho, expressing hope that Europe would seize the opportunity presented by the current tumoil.

Education is key

The ambassadors also unanimously agreed that modern education systems are key to the creation of knowledge-based societies. They called for cooperation to be strengthened between governments, academia and the commercial sector to improve education systems at all levels.

Positions:

Radek Spicar, external relations director of the Czech carmaker, Skoda, stressed the importance of innovation for businesses' ability to remain competitive. Mirroring Esko Aho's statements, he insisted that the financial crisis represented the best time to think about innovation.

He also called for education systems to be improved, which should prepare students for the needs of the labour market. For the time being, businesses are struggling to find qualified workers as young people do not possess the required skills, Spicar said.

Teaching entrepreneurial skills and winning over more students for natural sciences also should also rank highly among policy priorities, the industry representative argued.

Background:

'European Years' centred on specific themes have been held in the EU since 1983. 2006 was the European Year of Workers' Mobility, 2007 was named European Year of Equal Opportunities and 2008 paid special attention to intercultural dialogue. Their main purpose is to increase public awareness on a given topic and to stimulate political debate across the EU.

Throughout 2009, the European Commission will jointly organise, along with the current Czech and upcoming Swedish EU presidencies, campaigns, events and initiatives at EU, national, regional and local level. The funding will come from existing Community programmes.

The EU executive also nominated various European personalities from different fields as special ambassadors to the Year of Creativity and Innovation. The group is chaired by Esko Aho, executive vice-president of Nokia and a former prime minister of Finland.

"I believe the 2009 Year of Creativity and Innovation will represent a source of inspiration. It should grow into a big tree and not only be a one-year plant," said Education Commissioner Ján Figel'.

The EU should use the current economic crisis to develop strategic goals both at European and national level and improve conditions for creativity and innovation, the commissioner declared.

"There has never been better time for Europe to be flexible," he insisted. Those who invest in creativity and innovation will be more competitive than those who do not, Figel' added.

Source Europa