EU2020 : BUSINESSEUROPE CALLS FOR MORE R&D SPENDING.

PositionBrief article

The EU budget should be overhauled and the focus shifted to research and development spending, Jurgen Thumann, president of Europe's business federation, is to tell EU leaders ahead of an 11 February growth and jobs summit.

The EU spends an average of 1.8% of its GDP on research and development, one percentage point less than the US and almost half of what Japan and South Korea invest. But with ballooning budgets as a result of the financial crisis, Europe's governments have little cash to spare: the average deficit is predicted to reach 7.5% of GDP this year and debt will hit 80%. Greece is the latest country to fall victim to fiscal problems, and is under the watchful eye of the European Commission as it carries out major reforms to bring its huge 12.7% deficit down to below 3% of GDP - the Stability and Growth Pact limit - by 2012.

By smart' banking regulation, stabilising government debt, enacting key labour and company reforms and keeping markets open, BusinessEurope says the EU could add 6.5...

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