Roberto Saracco, Trento Node Director, participated in the panel "The Future of Europe: Beyond the Euro Crises, Beyond the EU?" with Paul de Grauwe, Dennis Snower, Rob Johnson and Peter Jungen. The panel was by INET on June 31st in the Framework of Trento Festival of Economics.
Ninth edition of the Festival of Economics in Trento and Rovereto saw participation of Nobel prize winners, key persons at European and International level, and Italian Prime Minister, Matteo Renzi. Trento was brimming with young generation taking advantage of the possibility to have an open discussion with key political and economical leaders.
The main topic of the panel was European competitiveness in the context of European Monetary Policy and Innovation. Roberto Saracco pointed out the role that innovation brings to Europe. He drew attention to the difference between research and innovation. Europe has been investing billions of euros over the last 30 years to stimulate European wide research, but this has had very limited impact on its competitiveness. But it is innovation that helps to boost competitiveness of enterprises.
Significant changes should not be expected in just a year, or in a few years. It is a matter of changing the culture of an entire continent that is still looking backward at its past history and it is finding hard to compete with continents that are looking at the future.
The panel saw lively discussion on euro and monetary policy, but consensus on the importance of innovation and hope that the EIT ICT Labs will provide that push so sorely needed in Europe.
