EU2020 : BUSINESSEUROPE CALLS FOR MORE R&D SPENDING.

• Position: Brief 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...