Innovating for Sustainable Growth: A Bioeconomy for Europe
Opinion factsheet
On this page
- Enterprise and Industry
- Research and intellectual property
Opinion number:
CDR-1112-2012
Status:
Adopted
Objective
support the proposed initiative to pave the way for a more innovative, resource efficient and competitive society that reconciles food security with a sustainable use of renewable resources for industrial purposes, while ensuring environmental protection;
complement the key proposals of the European Commission (life sciences and biotechnology contribute substantially to core EU policy goals in terms of health, sustainable and economic development and job creation);
highlight the role of LRAs in these domains and develop their involvement in devising and implementing the measures at EU level
complement the key proposals of the European Commission (life sciences and biotechnology contribute substantially to core EU policy goals in terms of health, sustainable and economic development and job creation);
highlight the role of LRAs in these domains and develop their involvement in devising and implementing the measures at EU level
Impact
The final EP resolution pays increasing attention to the regional and local dimension of Bioeconomy. It takes up word for word several suggestions proposed by the Rapporteur. The same applies to some concepts that were also taken up in the final EP resolution .
Essential points
THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS notes that
- life sciences and biotechnology contribute substantially to core EU policy goals in terms of health, sustainable and economic development and job creation
- the transition towards a bioeconomy is a prerequisite to making Europe a global leader in the bioeconomy especially regarding innovation and competitiveness
- the bioeconomy is listed, together with food security and sustainable agriculture, as a "societal challenge" in Horizon 2020 , with a budget proposed by the Commission of EUR 4.5 billion; this is welcomed by the CoR
- it will be at least 25 years before the bioeconomy can compete with the fossil-based economy and that this requires long term investment (in R&D), strategies (beyond 2020) and cooperation among all stakeholders along the value chain aiming to achieve cooperative knowledge transfer
- the bio-economy will provide new business and innovation opportunities for Europe’s value chain including the agricultural sector
- spatial planning policy instruments are important in maintaining areas used for agriculture and forestry
- the Commission's proposed action plan does not include any measures to increase natural resource efficiency.