Climate depends on our ingenuity

05.07.2022 14:42

Climate depends on our ingenuity

Wind Generator Turbines in beautiful Real Landscape

"Reaching an ecological balance fully depends on our ability to innovate and develop clean tech”, declared Christian Ehler MEP, the EPP Group’s Spokesman on Energy, Industry and Research.

Today, the European Commission is expected to present the new EU innovation agenda, a cornerstone to the green transition.

"The success of the EU Green Deal fully depends on Europe's ability to innovate and develop the clean tech that we need for a carbon-neutral economy and society. Yet, so far, the Commission has made no serious attempt to develop a plan for the supply side of this challenge. This new Innovation Strategy is an important first step to fix this. It sets out the framework conditions needed for Europe to be a successful innovation continent", said Ehler.

Ehler highlighted that innovation is also needed for the digital transition, and deep tech innovation in particular will play a crucial role. Deep tech innovation refers to innovation that is based on developments in high-tech engineering or science rather than incremental technological development or business case innovation. To stimulate deep tech innovation in Europe, the EU set up the European Innovation Council (EIC).

"The European Innovation Council can be a game changer for deep tech innovation in Europe. However, irresponsible turf wars in the European Commission are consuming its potential. We are profoundly concerned about the European Innovation Council because it finds itself locked in the stranglehold of bureaucratic infighting in the Commission, which is blocking funding from going out to European deep tech start-ups. This may result in the bankruptcy of dozens of European deep tech start-ups, destroying hundreds of millions in economic value and doing innumerable damage to our human capital. The European Commission must bring the EIC back to its original mission and restore it as the flagship investor in Europe's deep tech start-ups. Otherwise, the ambitions of the EU Communication will be undermined even before it is published", concluded Ehler.

Note to editors

The EPP Group is the largest political group in the European Parliament with 176 Members from all EU Member States

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