Comment Neelie (Kroes)

[...] And it is why we have already managed to make good progress in the agenda set by our Innovation Union flagship initiative; be it, for instance, in agreeing on the Community patent after thirty years of negotiation, or in further reducing the innovation gap with the United States and Japan. We did it through initiatives such as the European Research Council, which has provided grants to 2600 top researchers between 2007 and 2012 and has become the reference point in frontier research; and through the European Institute of Technology, linking up business and academics through Knowledge and Innovation Communities.