国际英语新闻：EU promotes innovation to boost economic growth

BRUSSELS, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- Innovation is vital for growth, economic re-balancing and recovery, Maire Geoghegan-Quinn, European Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science, said on Monday in London.

Three days after the European Council summit gathered European Union (EU) leaders to discuss innovation and energy issues, Geoghegan-Quinn paid a visit to the British Science Royal Society to promote the economic and social benefits of innovation.

"Innovation is vital for growth," she said in a statement released on the EU website. According to the commissioner, innovation is one of the keys to rebalancing EU economies and ensuring long-term economic recovery.

The commissioner encouraged member states to maintain investment in research and development (R&D) and innovation, as reaching the EU target of investing 3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in R&D could create around 4 million jobs and increase annual GDP by 700 billion euros (954 billion U.S. dollars) by 2025.

Geoghegan-Quinn underlined the need to harmonize innovation and research funding through the adoption of the Common Strategic Framework that could bring together many EU funding instruments.

"European Research funding is currently spread across too many small programs and different instruments, sometimes with insufficient scale and scope to make real breakthroughs in a visible way," she said.

The European Commission is expected to present its Green Paper on future EU funding for research and innovation on Wednesday, with proposals to cut red tape for scientists and facilitate funding to be discussed, among others.

The commissioner also called on member states to work on completing the European Research Area by 2014, with the view to enhancing cross border cooperation in research and innovation.

She also highlighted the importance of launching European Innovation Partnerships, such as the already agreed pilot partnership on active and healthy ageing, which aims to increase the average healthy lifespan in Europe by two years by 2020.

By bringing together the main stakeholders in a particular field, innovation partnerships are expected to help speed up the development and deployment of the technologies needed to meet the challenges the EU is facing.

"I am convinced that science, research and innovation have a bright future in Europe," she said. "I am convinced that they will do much for Europe."