Comment Neelie (Kroes)

Making speeches talk

Comment Neelie
[...] First, we have agreement on a new Joint Undertaking, Electronic Components and Systems for European Leadership – ECSEL for short. The EU's member countries agreed that in less than one year. It's a public-private partnership between the Union, the industry and national governments – lining up all those sources of funding. And in less than a month it will launch its first calls for proposals. We ourselves are contributing nearly €1.2 billion for the next 7 years, which I hope the EU's Member States will at least match. And I count on industry and their R&D partners to double that amount again. All together a joint investment of €5 billion. That will make it the EU's single largest public private partnership. That seems appropriate, given this sector: its size, its strategic importance, its centrality to innovation and growth.
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