EU RESEARCH and innovation commissioner Máire Geoghegan-Quinn has held out a hand of friendship to American business, saying Europe should deepen its links with US companies to beat competition from China and India.

In a speech in Brussels yesterday to the American Chamber of Commerce to the EU, Ireland’s newly installed commissioner said she was keen to extend research links between Europe and the US in the next five years.

“Staying open in the world is essential,” she said, adding that the US was Europe’s most important science and technology partner. “I fully recognise that we have strong global competition from China and India. It will be a tough battle. But it is one I am prepared to fight, and which I believe that we can win, as long as we work together and adapt to changing realities.

“To win this battle, we have to work closely with you. I want to know what the needs of business are. That is why I am here today.”

While Ms Geoghegan-Quinn said Europe had a large and excellent knowledge base and was the largest producer of scientific publications, she said it was not good enough at transforming inventions into commercial successes.

“For example, the MP3 standard for compressing audio data was invented in Europe but commercialised in America – as was Apple’s iPod,” she said.

“This has to change. Europe is in fact nearly level pegging with the US in terms of the number of patents registered. Yet, the cost of patents in the EU is much bigger than in the US. If we could change this, if we could deliver a large and harmonised single market for services, together with a European venture capital market, just imagine what we could achieve.”

She said an innovation culture in Europe could deliver better treatment for Alzheimer’s and diabetes. She was convinced it would be necessary to set in motion scientific initiatives to resolve major challenges to society in the health and low-carbon energy sectors.

Ms Goeghegan-Quinn wants 15 per cent of funding in collaborative public and private research projects to go to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

An average of about €5 billion per year goes into such research programmes. Contracts signed suggest SMEs have received €850 million or 13.4 per cent of the €6.34 billion committed so far under this programme. To avoid duplication, Ms Goeghegan-Quinn also wants to end the fragmentation of national research efforts.