A European Commission effort to use government procurement powers to spur innovation faces a series of key political tests this spring, according to top EU officials.
“It’s crunch time,” said Robert Madelin, Director-General for Information Society and Media at the European Commission. A series of Commission proposals on the topic are being debated this Spring, in the Parliament and among the EU member-states.“If we get a clearer mandate [from member states] on pre-commercial procurement this year, it will become much easier going forward,” Madelin said at a Science|Business seminar on 16 March.
Innovative procurement and pre-commercial procurement are ideas that have moved much higher up the European agenda in the last year. The EU’s Innovation Union strategy and the European Council’s conclusions from its Feb. 4 summit both highlight public procurement as an important tool for driving innovation and reviving growth, with the European Commission setting a target that at least €10 billion be spent in procuring innovation across the EU. Normally, EU programmes encourage innovation by funding research and development through grants, project contracts or other means short of outright purchase.
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Author: Anna Jenkinson
