The Conference brought together some 500 members of the Europe INNOVA community of innovation practitioners with key innovation stakeholders from the worlds of politics, academia and business to examine how Europe’s economic and society challenges can be tackled by stepping up innovation across the EU.

The gathering took place at a time when innovation has been given centre stage in the Europe 2020 Strategy for economy recovery. With the publication of Innovation Union communication by the Commission on 6 October, and the new industry communication “An industrial policy in the globalisation era” on 28 October, there were plenty of hot issues to discuss.

Jean-Claude Marcourt said that while the EU Member State delegations at the recent EU Competitiveness Council welcomed the European Commission’s Innovation Union communication, the majority regretted that not enough attention is being given to industry.

“Innovation is not just about technology. It is about the response to our needs in terms of climate change, the ageing population and also the economic crisis,” he said.

Pointing to the important role European regions can play in relaunching competitiveness through innovation, he added: “In the future, regions will have an important role in stimulating innovation, particularly through ‘smart specialisation.”

The Walloon region has been a pioneer in the development of ‘competitiveness clusters’ which bring entrepreneurs, researchers and other stakeholders together in focused industrial concentrations such as aerospace, agro-industry, health, mechanical engineering, and transport & logistics. The “Creative Wallonia” programme to be launched on Friday October 29th will focus new efforts on creative industries in the region.

“Such partnerships are the basis for spreading innovation through the economic fabric,” Mr Marcourt said. “Numerous enterprises are embracing innovation in the context of competitive industrial clusters.”

Heinz Zourek, Director General of the European Commission’s DG Enterprise and Industry, said to delegates: “There may be innovation with or without research, but not without the entrepreneurs who bring new ideas to the market. Europe does not so much lack innovative ideas but rather entrepreneurs who take risks and want to grow fast.”

While welcoming EU efforts to push ahead with research, Mr Zourek also confirmed the need for concerted action at the industrial level. “Research and innovation are necessary for developing new technologies and market opportunities. …But building a strong knowledge base is in itself insufficient for success,” he cautioned. “There is no innovation without entrepreneurship,” he said highlighting the fact that SMEs are often the drivers of ground-breaking innovation activity.

He stressed the continued importance of promoting industrial clusters to pool resources and ideas at local and regional level and foster industrial change and economic development. Europe’s emphasis, he said, should now be on developing “world-class clusters” that are internationally recognised “hot spots” for innovation and investment in promising areas.

The key discussion themes of the Conference were: Unlocking Europe’s Creative Potential, Greening Industries and Supporting Innovative Entrepreneurship.

As part of Commission efforts to promote industrial innovation in the context of the Europe 2020 strategy, three new initiatives are being presented at the Conference dealing with:

• Transnational public procurement buyer groups targeting innovative products
• A platform to support European Mobile and Mobility Industries
A new grouping to champion Europe’s Creative Industries

The 3rd Europe INNOVA Conference was organised by the Region of Wallonia in the framework of the Belgian Presidency of the European Union, in close collaboration with the European Commission’s DG Enterprise and Industry.