Commissioner-designate Ekaterina Zaharieva. Image: © European Union 2024 - Source: EP.
Commissioner-designate Ekaterina Zaharieva wants to push for 50pc women on all Horizon-related boards and expert groups.
Bulgarian candidate Ekaterina Zaharieva is en route to become the first-ever EU commissioner for start-ups, research and innovation (R&I), and if formally elected, she wants to increase EU funding and private investment into R&I “to enable Europe to become the most competitive region in the world”.
“We must support our companies much better to commercialise and scale their innovations here in Europe,” Zaharieva said at her confirmation hearing at the European parliament yesterday (5 November).
“Every start-up moving to third countries to seek capital represents a waste of European resources, a loss of European jobs and missed opportunities for our communities.
“We must stop Europe’s innovation drain.”
Commissioner-designate Zaharieva is a member of the Bulgarian parliament and has served as the country’s deputy prime minister for judicial reform, the minister of foreign affairs and as the minister of justice in recent years.
During her confirmation hearing, she asserted the need for higher and more strategic investments to develop EU R&I. “We need to put research and innovation at the centre of all our policies in order to secure Europe’s future,” she said.
According to Zaharieva, the EU’s investment in R&I is lower than that of US, China and Japan, adding that the bloc “must strive harder to reach our 3pc GDP target for R&I.
“Today, we are only a 2.3pc and this is clearly not enough,” she said.
The focus on innovation will lead to success for European business, she said. “Generative AI alone is estimated to add between €2 and €4trn to industries from pharmaceuticals to manufacturing,” she said.
A focus on innovation is also necessary to enable the bloc to meet its climate targets. “One third of the CO2 reductions we need by 2050 will come from green technologies that are not yet on the market.”
Coordinated efforts are the key takeaway
If she secures office, Zaharieva said she will strengthen the European Research Area (ERA) – a “single, borderless,” market for R&I and technology across the EU – by way of an ERA Act.
Initiated in 2000 to address the “fragmentation” in the European research landscape, the ERA aims to create an “attractive environment” for researchers and innovators across the region.
The current ERA policy agenda runs until the end of 2024 and sets voluntary actions that can be taken to contribute to its priority areas including amplifying access to R&I across the EU and advancing concerted R&I investments and reforms.
However, according to the commissioner-designate, EU R&I funding is still largely fragmented and she is calling for more coordination in funding efforts.
“90pc of European R&I comes from national and regional funding – a firepower nine times bigger than Horizon Europe,” she said. “27 excellent but fragmented research strategies do not make a good European one,” she explained, adding that a “lack of coordination creates inefficient funding systems”.
She also said that this fragmentation leads to a failure in exploiting opportunities in cross-border cooperation.
Zaharieva also asserted that she will promote more female representation in European R&I.
“As a minister, I built a track record in promoting women,” she said. “I will strive to achieve the target of 50pc women in all Horizon-related boards, expert groups and evaluation committees.”
The 26 commissioners-designate for various departments, including Zaharieva, will face a final evaluation and confirmation vote to take place at the end of November.
Recently, the European Commission announced a budget of €1.4bn to support European deep tech in 2025 and a partnership with 71 private investors with a combined asset value of more than €90bn to launch a Trusted Investors Network to co-invest in deep-tech companies across Europe.
Don’t miss out on the knowledge you need to succeed. Sign up for the Daily Brief, Silicon Republic’s digest of need-to-know sci-tech news.
