Barriers to innovation: "Take them down with simplification and speeding up" (U. von der Leyen)

"There is a deficiency in bringing the research results into a product and scaling up the product on the market in the EU. There are still a lot of barriers to innovation and innovative start-ups. Our first priority must be to take them down with simplification and speeding up and, as a first step, to cut red tape for these startups", says Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, on 08/11/2024.

She is speaking at the informal Council of European Ministers in Budapest (Hungary), where the Budapest Declaration on the New European Competitiveness Pact is being signed.

The President of the Commission points out that the Draghi report highlighted three priorities to be addressed: closing the innovation gap, decarbonisation and reinforcing strategic security.

The Ministers agreed on 12 competitiveness drivers, including:

• "Intensifying our efforts to ensure a fully functioning single market and unlock its full potential as a key driver for innovation, investment, convergence, growth, connectivity and economic resilience.

To this end, we invite the Commission to present…