Duff calls for 'More Europe' in Eastern Region's Research and Development
May 18, 2000 12:00 AM
Andrew Duff, Liberal Democrat Euro-MP for Eastern England, has called for the European Union to reinforce its research and development policies.
He claims that Eastern England, which is Britain's top region in terms of science and technology, would stand to benefit from a major expansion of unified R&D programmes. The European Liberal Democrats are leading the campaign within the European Parliament to build a 'European research area'.
Andrew Duff said:
"Regrettably, Europe's research effort today is hardly more than the sum of separate national programmes - with some useful networking supported by the European Commission.
"Already we spend much less per head than in the USA. The fragmentation of effort, the isolation of national research projects, and the divergent nature of legislation and fiscal policy makes matters even worse.
"Europe has to make a conscious and determined effort to build clusters of excellence in the new technologies. In Eastern England, based on and around Cambridge, we have Europe's best chance to develop serious competition with Silicon Valley and to ratchet up the development of both pure and applied research, and new technology.
"The European Union could help more than it does by insisting on the opening up of national public procurement programmes, by establishing a single European patent, and by assisting the growth of IT and transport infrastructure.
"Above all, we need the same sort of tax regime all over the Union as they have in the USA. This would enable our entrepreneurs to reinvest in Europe and our graduate scientists would not be so easily lured to California by the prospect of high salaries and equity share. In this context, the work of small firms must be recognised and encouraged."
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