Activities of Elisabeth SCHROEDTER related to 2010/2245(INI)
Shadow opinions (2)
OPINION on Innovation Union: Transforming Europe for a post-crisis world
OPINION Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions: Europe 2020 Flagship Initiative - Innovation Union
Amendments (13)
Amendment 1 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Considers that innovation should be used to solve society'’s problems, stresses the importance of the pilot partnership in the field of active and healthy ageing, considers that similar innovation partnerships should also be developedchallenges, such as climate change, resource and energy efficiency, health and demographic change; stresses the importance of synergie effects between innovative employment policies and skill development for innovation in a sustainable economy in order to prevent and remedy other crucial health and social problemsocietal challenges, and recommends taking advantage of the various Member States‘’ capacity to initiate innovative partnerships more swiftly than others, such as the Finnish example of the pilot partnership in the field of active and healthy ageing;
Amendment 6 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Points out that decision-takers at regional level must be fully aware of the potential for economic growth and employment that research and innovation activities offer all regions; notes in this regard that even regions without universities and research centres should be able to develop their own innovation capacities; stresses the importance to provide predictable and investment- friendly framework conditions for innovative businesses at regional level and to create incentives for them for investment for the benefit of employees and of the environment;
Amendment 9 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Stresses the importance of information and communications technology (ICT) in all innovative activity, recommends promoting the widespread use of ICT, promoting R&D in this field, favouring open-source codeproviding training and lifelong learning offers to ensure that also vulnerable groups cand thus facilitating greater participation by citizens and SMEs in the development of applications and new services fully exploit the potential of information and communications technology (ICT);
Amendment 17 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Recommends involving all citizens in innovation and empowering them to innovate, supports the Commission's proposal for a European social innovation pilot project and its proposal that social innovation should become a central priority of European Social Fund (ESF) programmes; calls for a second priority in the ESF regarding the need to invest in skills, employment, training and retraining activities with the aim of creating more and better jobs in a more sustainable economy, taking energy and resource efficiency into account.
Amendment 18 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3 a. Calls on the Commission to work more closely with the Member States in order to draw up medium- and long-term forecasts regarding the skills required by the employment market and to encourage partnerships between universities and the business sector in order to foster the transition of young people to the employment market while helping to create an innovative knowledge-based society, develop applied research and create better employment market prospects for graduates;
Amendment 21 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 b (new)
Paragraph 3 b (new)
3 b. Notes that in times of crisis, it is essential to attract young people to the new type of green jobs and to ensure that skill programmes promote the access of young people to the labour-market, so that young people can profit from the job potential, to combat high unemployment among citizens under 25 years of age and in order to capitalise on the young generation's skills in using new technologies;
Amendment 24 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4 a. Considers it very important to support public research and make research results accessible in a simple and unbureaucratic way so that all companies, including micro-enterprises and SMEs, can make changes with respect to energy efficiency, the use of new energy sources, new production processes and recycling and the better use of resources, and create jobs with rights;
Amendment 25 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 b (new)
Paragraph 4 b (new)
4 b. Stresses the importance of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) for regional clustering by bringing together research, innovation and infrastructure locally in the context of new technologies, such as renewable energy and energy efficiency; points out that such clustering can act as a decisive spur to local economic development and can create new jobs in the regions;
Amendment 26 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4 a. Stresses the importance of raising the level of lifelong learning, and developing training activities for all to enhance eco- innovativeness and entrepreneurship and to ensure that the workforce can adjust their skills to the labour-market needs of a more sustainable economy founded on competence-based training concepts; calls on the Member States, employers and employees to recognise skills management, training and lifelong learning for innovation as a shared responsibility, as acknowledged in the social partners’ 2002 framework agreement on lifelong learning; calls on the Commission to incorporate a ninth key competence relating to the environment, climate change and sustainable development – which is essential in a knowledge society – into the framework for lifelong learning;
Amendment 34 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5 a. Calls for a specific EU initiative to attract girls to the MINT professions (mathematics, informatics, natural sciences and technology) and to combat the stereotypes that still dominate these professions; stresses that the role of the media and education is key in combating such stereotypes;
Amendment 37 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Recommends that innovation should also be promoted by means of joint cross- border public-sector projects, by coordinating EU, Member States‘ and regional public funding better than hitherto and reducing the associated bureaucracy, and by means of measures to promote venture capital investment in businesses with growth potentialto make full use its potential to increase employability and meet the demands of businesses in a new sustainable economy.
Amendment 38 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 a (new)
Paragraph 6 a (new)
6 a. Supports the Commission's flagship initiative under the Europe 2020 strategy to make the change towards a sustainable economy now, to make economic growth less dependent on consumption of resources and energy, to reduce climate- damaging emissions and thus to act against global warming; takes the view that significantly more research is needed to measure the impact of environmental and climate change policies on net employment creation on regional level; calls on the Commission to make this area a priority under the 8th Framework Programme;
Amendment 40 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Stresses that the full innovation potential of EU regions must be mobilised in order to meet the Europe 2020 objective of smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, and points out that future regional policy must treat this challenge as a major priority; calls for industry to be involved in eco-innovation, since entrepreneurs have a very important role to play in spreading eco-innovation more widely on regional level; notes, in this regard, that informing entrepreneurs – by demonstrating new business opportunities – will be crucial to the success of a strategy aimed at developing resource- efficient economies and sustainable industries.