‘We must go further’: Marcelo warns Portugal, Italy and Spain must be more innovative

The President of the Republic warned on Tuesday in the Italian city of Palermo that Portugal, Spain and Italy need to “be more innovative”, during a meeting of the business organization COTEC Europa, which brings together the foundations for innovation in the three countries. . “We must go further, we must take the lead in European innovation,” he said.

Speaking at the closing session of the 16th COTEC Europe meeting, dedicated this year to the theme of “innovation in sustainable finance” and held at the Teatro Massimo in the capital of Sicily, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa stressed that the phenomenon of climate change “is not fiction, it is a dramatic reality” and defended that sustainable development is “the great challenge of the future”.

“Faced with climate change, we have had to act and, unfortunately, in too many cases, react. Action on climate change is inseparable from sustainable development, global, environmental, scientific, technological, intergenerational, equitable and therefore societal and truly human development. How long did this sustainable development last? Too long. But today and forever, this will be our big challenge for the future,” he said.

Noting that “sustainable development means innovation and the financing of that innovation”, the President of the Republic, welcoming the “vision alliance” created in 2005, which is COTEC, then warned of the need for the three countries in southern Europe to become leaders in the field of innovation, noting that they are currently in the second half of the European Union table.

“The three of us in our alliance need to be more innovative. In the European “rating” we are below average, we are “moderate innovators”. In 2022 the average [europeia] there were 150 patents per million inhabitants. In Italy there are almost 100, in Spain almost 50, in Portugal less,” he said.

Using other statistics, the head of state also pointed out that “employment in high-tech and science-intensive industries in our countries is less than 5%”, while “in the most innovative countries in Europe it is from 7 to 10%.” “.

“Dear businessmen, you are at the forefront of this fight, companies, businessmen, employees of these companies,” concluded Marcelo Rebelo de Souza, who participated in the 16th symposium, which annually collects innovation funds from Portugal. , Italy and Spain, together with the heads of state of Italy Sergio Materella and Spain, King Felipe VI.

COTEC Europe meetings have been organized since 2005 and are held annually in Spain, Italy and Portugal in turn (last year the meeting was held in Braga) with the participation of business leaders, politicians and scientists from all sectors of the economy. activities, as well as with the presence of the heads of state of the three countries of Southern Europe.