The Committee of the Regions will discuss the regional and local impact of the Innovation Union Flagship Initiative on a conference on 27 November 2013.

The event is the seventh in the series covering the Europe 2020 Strategy. The Innovation Union flagship initiative commits the EU to increase investment in research to 3% of its GDP by 2020 (2% in 2010). Studies indicate that such investment could create 3.7 million jobs by 2025. Based on a broad concept of innovation, the flagship initiative aims at strengthening the role of research in boosting jobs and growth creation and has put in place over 30 activities (“commitments”). Statistics indicate only one in ten EU regions spends more than 3% of their GDP on research and these 27 regions together amount already for over 40% of the total investment in innovation. Economic change and recovery is increasingly related to the capacity of regions to manage smart growth. Many regional governments have important competences and budgets in the field of innovation. ‘Smart specialisation’ of regions will therefore become a priority for EU cohesion policy between 2014 and 2020 accompanied by the new “Horizon 2020” programme and other initiatives.

In the Committee of the Regions, innovation policy is dealt with by its Commission on Education, Youth, Culture and Research (EDUC) and cohesion policy is treated by the Commission on Territorial Cohesion Policy (COTER). 

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