Innovation policy in seven candidate countries : Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Romania, Slovakia and Turkey : highlights from the final report

Abstract

“Innovation is viewed as a multi-dimensional concept, which goes beyond technological innovation to encompass, for example, new means of distribution, marketing or design. Innovation is thus not only limited to high-tech sectors of the economy, but rather is an omnipresent driver for growth.” - Commission Communication of March 2003 on Innovation Policy. The EU has placed innovation at the heart of its economic policy objectives since the mid 1990s. This growing emphasis culminated in the new strategic goal - set by the Lisbon European Council in March 2000 - that the European Union (EU) should become the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world, capable of sustaining economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion by the year 2010. The Commission Communication of March 2003 on Innovation policy sets out a vision of innovation which integrates diverse factors into a coherent whole. This whole will embrace scientifi c research, technology development, product design, marketing, organisation structure and training and development. It is against this model that the CC7 countries must measure themselves. This study set out to examine and analyse the current framework conditions for innovation in the Helsinki group of candidate countries. This group consists of Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, the Slovak Republic and Romania, (the CC7). It was the second of two such studies: the fi rst study was carried out during the period June 2000 to September 2001 and covered the so-called Luxembourg Group (the CC6). This second study was carried out during the 15-month period from October 2001 to December 2002.