“I’m into action” says Geoghegan-Quinn

Commissioner-designate Maire Geoghegan-Quinn

Science is where the jobs of the future lie, she said, and so young people must be encouraged to pursue scientific careers in Europe. In the past the emphasis has been on the financial sector and commerce, but now it is science that must be encouraged, she said.

During the hearing, the commissioner-designate made sure she included all the key buzzwords. Her three research priorities are completing the European Research Area, addressing society’s grand challenges, and creating an innovation research culture. She addressed the Innovation Act, the European Community patent, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and getting rid of red tape. She also emphasised that research must be deployed by the EU to deliver what people want: jobs, a cleaner, safer environment, and green technologies. “The buzzwords can only be delivered with real policy,” she said.

As Geoghegan-Quinn herself admitted, getting to grips with the portfolio had left little time for family or anything else over the Christmas and New Year holiday. As to whether mastery of the brief was sufficient to persuade MEPs to overlook her lack of any scientific training, MEP Maria da Graça Carvalho (EPP, Portugal) told Science|Business after the hearing, “I am convinced that her personal qualities – with the assistance of the excellent Commission staff – will enable her to overcome this difficulty.”

Carvalho added that, “Geoghegan-Quinn is a very experienced politician who has shown determination, leadership and considerable good will to collaborate with the European Parliament.”

Whither the Innovation Act?

Innovation has been added to the commissioner’s title for the new five-year term, and this was a subject that attracted questions from several MEPs, including one from Pilar del Castillo Vera (EPP, Spain) who suggested there could be a possible clash between Geoghegan-Quinn's portfolio and that of Industry and Entrepreneurship.

"Innovation goes right across every policy area in the European Commission", replied Geoghegan-Quinn, who made her opening and closing comments in her native Irish tongue.

Commission President José Manuel Barroso has given her “overarching” responsibility for cross-cutting policy on innovation and asked her to chair a committee of commissioners whose responsibilities fall into the field of innovation, such as the digital economy, enterprise and employment, she said. She was keen to emphasise that she would work very closely with all her fellow commissioners, if confirmed in the post, saying, “We can no longer afford to work in silos, we can no longer afford to work in fiefdoms.”

The Commission has plans for a European Innovation Act, but it remains unclear which directorate-general will have ultimate responsibility. So far it has been DG Enterprise that has taken the lead, but with Geoghegan-Quinn’s title including innovation, it may well move to her domain.

“I presume I will have responsibility for the Innovation Act, as I will chair the group of innovation commissioners”, Geoghegan-Quinn told ScienceBusiness in a press briefing immediately after the hearing.

The deployment of innovation and research as a means to emerge stronger from the financial crisis was a key message from the Irish commissioner-designate, who referred more than once to Finland as an example of how research and development can be used as a means to overcome recession.

If we want to take Europe out of the economic crisis in which it is at the moment, than we have to innovate,” she said.

She described SMEs as “the backbone of the European economy” and as such more had to be done to help them. SMEs are “driven mad” by the restrictions placed on them for getting involved in the 7th Framework Programme (FP7), she said. “One size does not fit all,” she said, while acknowledging that sound financial management should never be compromised. The suggestion was that there need to be fewer rules for smaller projects to make life easier for SMEs.

The commissioner-designate, who for the last decade has been a member of the European Court of Auditors, said she would publish a communication on simplification early in her term.

The upcoming mid-term review of FP7 will be a key tool in evaluating what is working well, what isn’t, and what needs to be changed, she said, saying it was too early to go into details. When asked whether Barroso had hinted to her as to whether there would be new money going into research in the coming years, Geoghegan-Quinn laughed and said, “I could be killed, you know,” before adding more seriously that Barroso was not yet in a position to give any budget guarantees.

“It will be difficult from every point of view,” she said of future budget negotiations, as there will be tough competition from many quarters. Nonetheless she said she would do everything possible to fight to maintain, or even increase, the research budget.

The Commissioner-to-be also committed herself to the Lisbon target of spending three per cent of GDP on research, saying it was “a matter of sadness that we haven’t yet managed to meet this objective, and telling MEPs to “be assured” she would maintain the three per cent target.

One obstacle to business that Geoghegan-Quinn said she is keen to address is the patent issue. While acknowledging that a lot of progress had been made, she said the “final steps” still needed to be taken. “This final bottleneck will be broken down,” so that Europe is finally able to have a European patent that is affordable and doesn’t put Europe at a disadvantage compared with the US, she said.

In her comments at the hearing Geoghegan-Quinn promised, “I’ll be a very robust Commissioner. I won’t be a mouse.” She certainly came across as a confident woman who knew how to press the right buttons and didn’t hesitate once in replying to MEPs’ questions. While she may not have prompted as much applause as the current Research Commissioner Janez Potočnik in his hearing for his new post of Environment Commissioner - described by one MEP as the applause usually heard at the opera or the theatre - she probably did enough to earn the parliament’s backing.