site.btaMarc Lemaître Says Goal Is to Tap Innovation Opportunities in CEE

Marc Lemaître, European Commission Director-General for Research and Innovation, Friday said work is in progress in several directions with the ultimate goal of tapping the innovation opportunities in Central and Eastern Europe. He participated in a Fireside Chat: Horizons of Innovation: The CEE Path to Global Competitiveness, on the third and last day of the Green Transition Forum 4.0: New global perspectives for the CEE region.

The forum in Sofia is organized by Dir.bg и 3E News, and BTA is media partner.

Lemaître said that being a leader in climate neutrality, Europe has a lot of work to do to reach the ultimate goal. This means much more effort is needed in research and innovation, not just for the sake of climate neutrality, but also for the sake of Europe's future competitiveness. This will require more and better innovation because Europe is not spending enough money on R&D, unlike its main rivals the US and China, he said.

He called for better links between academia and business.

Talking about CEE, Lemaître said there is an overly fragmented landscape with too many actors. CEE has the potential to streamline the R&D landscape. He stressed the need to get serious about smart specialization and cited the centres of excellence, of which Bulgaria is a good example.

Lemaître said there are large resources for 2026-2027. There are unprecedented instruments with the possibility of doing additional research in the coming years, thanks to EU funding, especially in CEE, where this is extremely important. Now more than 85% of public spending on R&D comes from EU funding in countries such as Bulgaria, Poland, Slovakia and a few others.

Marc Lemaître believes that when talking about CEE, the big picture is important. Horizon Europe should be viewed together with the Cohesion Fund and the Recovery and Resilience Plan - all these instruments together will bring improvements.