Barroso: Horizon 2020 will foster industrial competitiveness

The European Commission President, José Manuel Barroso, has stated that Horizon 2020 “will play an important role in the coming years in fostering industrial competitiveness”.

In a letter to members of the European Council ahead of next week’s summit, Barroso said: “I believe we can all agree on the importance of creating the right environment to support Europe’s industrial competitiveness. Among the many factors that determine this are the way manufacturing and services increasingly work together and investment in research and innovation.”

Speaking about the EU’s Multiannual Financial Framework, the Commission president added: “Through our MFF decisions we have committed to increase the budget available and will now have considerable funds to boost European research.”

He said that competitiveness would feature prominently in the discussion on energy and climate change at the March European Council meeting in Brussels.