COMPETITIVENESS : VERHEUGEN: SPEND MORE, NOT LESS, ON INNOVATION.

"There is light at the end of the tunnel. Slowly but certainly there will be a recovery of our economies," said Gunter Verheugen, the European Commission's vice-president responsible for enterprise and industry policy, in his speech at the 4th Competitive Clusters Forum, on 13 and 14 November in Sophia Antipolis. He said that there will be a change in the structure of the worldwide markets but that "some main tendencies of the market are impossible to change. The emerging new markets will continue to grow. Those people are striving for better lives. They will be our toughest competitors".

In his contribution, Verheugen outlined his vision of how the economy will look like once the financial crisis is over.

It is now "more necessary than before" to boost the innovation potential of Europe, said Verheugen. "If we want to remain in competition with the upcoming markets from Brazil, India and China, there is a lot of investment needed in innovation. We cannot create a fortress Europa and avoid...