The Commission presented today its contribution to the informal discussion that Heads of State and Government will hold in Sofia on 16 May 2018 on research and innovation and the steps needed to ensure Europe's global competitiveness.

The Renewed European Agenda for Research and Innovation presented by the Commission outlines a set of concrete actions to deepen Europe's innovation capability and provide lasting prosperity.

Concretely, the Commission invited EU leaders to give strategic orientation on ensuring that regulation and financing are innovation-friendly. Proposed measures include giving priority to the transposition of the Directive on preventing restructuring frameworks, second chances and measures to increase the efficiency of restructuring, insolvency and discharge procedures; Increasing the procurement of innovative products and services by public authorities by applying the guidelines published by the Commission today; Swiftly adopting the next EU 2021-2027 budget with the proposed allocation of €100 billion to Horizon Europe and the Euratom research and training programme, as well as other major funding programmes that will provide a significant stimulus to innovation; Rolling out the VentureEU initiative to boost private investment and venture capital; Further simplifying EU State aid rules to facilitate public funding of innovative projects including blending of EU and national funds.

The Commission also proposed to establish a full-scale European Innovation Council to offer a one-stop shop for high potential and breakthrough technologies, as well as for innovative companies with potential for scaling up. The European Innovation Council will build on the €2.7 billion pilot phase for the period 2018-2020, with the objective to help identify and scale up fast-moving, high-risk innovations with strong potential to create entirely new markets.

The Commission further invites leaders to endorse the idea of launching EU-wide research and innovation missions with bold, ambitious goals and strong European added value in areas to be defined with Member States, stakeholders and citizens. These could range from the fight against cancer, to clean transport or plastic-free oceans. The missions will encourage investment and participation across sectors and scientific disciplines to jointly crack a challenge. They should create synergies with research and innovation strategies at Member State, regional and local level.

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