Renewal of fifth freedom for R&I ‘a major opportunity’

Former research and innovation commissioner Janez Potočnik hopes idea gets “attention it deserves”

The revival of the idea that research and innovation should be at the centre of a so-called fifth freedom of the EU single market is a “major opportunity”, former EU R&I commissioner Janez Potočnik has said.

In his European Commission R&I role from 2004-10, Potočnik (pictured) helped develop the European Research Area, the EU’s policymaking initiative for improving standards and harmonising policies around research, which is now expected to help make R&I part of the fifth freedom.

Speaking at a Commission-hosted event on the ERA in Brussels this week, Potočnik said: “The ERA is a wonderful concept; it’s part of the Europe we want. With the revival of the fifth freedom concept, you have a major opportunity to provide leadership beyond the pure research area.

“You also have an opportunity to innovate in the governance area, providing evidence that you deserve even more attention and support in the future than today.”

Potočnik pointed out that the fifth freedom had been proposed twice before, but said he expected and hoped the “third time would be the charm”.

Creating the fifth freedom

The renewal of the proposal for a fifth freedom for R&I and education came in a major report on the single market published earlier this year by former Italy prime minister Enrico Letta.

It gained a further boost this week when the Commission’s president tasked the proposed new R&I commissioner, Ekaterina Zaharieva, with proposing an ERA Act “to guarantee a fifth freedom, namely the free movement of researchers, scientific knowledge and technology”.

“The aim will be to reduce fragmentation of research and anchor R&I into the single market and unlock more of its potential,” the mission letter to Zaharieva adds.

Marc Lemaître, the Commission’s director-general for R&I, said after Potočnik’s speech that the community needed to “think big and bold” to achieve the fifth freedom and a truly integrated ERA, noting that developing the ERA was a continuous process.

Need for bigger R&I programme

Echoing the demands of another major recent report by another former prime minister of Italy, Mario Draghi, Potočnik said he was “convinced” that the EU needed a bigger R&I funding programme, “with a bigger focus on delivery”.

The design of the successor to Horizon Europe, the EU’s €93.5 billion 2021-27 R&I programme, is currently underway.

Advances in fields including computing have demonstrated that significant investment in R&I from the EU reaps huge rewards, Potočnik said. “This could help convince the EU that investment in R&I is logical and meaningful,” he added.

Potočnik said “We have clear arguments from the Draghi report to focus funding on developing a limited number of world-class innovation hubs,” and agreed that these should be established.