SLOVAKIA: Government sets R&D target

06 June 2010

The Slovak government has set itself the goal of investing 1.8% of gross domestic product in research and development by 2015. This target, smaller than the 3% by 2020 target for the EU as a whole, is still to be negotiated, reports EurActiv Slovakia.

According to Du?an Čaplovič, the country's deputy prime minister for the knowledge society, European affairs, human rights and minorities, Slovakia has "a tradition of planning everything in five-year or 10-year terms and from our experience, we don't consider setting numbers without real analysis as natural: because they are unrealisable". The government would prefer to see more output-oriented measures, he said.

Čaplovič's words echo those of Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who has expressed concern that the Europe 2020 initiative will suffer the same fate as its predecessor, the Lisbon Strategy, because some of the targets - including the 3% GDP target for R&D - are in his words unattainable.
Full report on the EurActiv site

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