Innovation in the economy and the entreprises, electronic trade, Go Digital initiative for SMEs

PURPOSE: to present a Commission Communication on Innovation in a knowledge-driven economy. CONTENT: The objective of this Communication is to set the broad policy lines for enhancing policy innovation in the European Union (EU). The five objectives presented contribute to strengthening Member States' capacity to overcome a number of obstacles, so as to lead to the dynamic conditions, and hence growth and quality jobs, that innovation can bring. The five objectives are as follows: 1) coherence of innovation policies; 2) a regulatory framework conducive to innovation; 3) encourage the creation and growth of innovative enterprises; 4) improving key interfaces in the innovation system; 5) a society open to innovation. After outlining some ten main recommendations to the Member States, the Communication states that the main activities of the Commission with regard to innovation will be: - to promote dialogue, coordination and benchmarking of Member State innovation policies and performance, and on the European innovation scoreboard; - to continue studies on topics relevant to innovation; - to continue and extend activities to encourage support for networking and advisory services with a European dimension, such as the help-desk on innovation financing (LIFT), activities to facilitate interfacing at European level between researchers, industry and investors, the existing network of regions of excellence for the creation of enterprises, new networks of European universities and public research centres to promote knowledge diffusion and best practices in technology transfer, and development of a European electronic directory of innovative start-ups; - to contribute to the development of methods for evaluating the intangible resources of young innovative enterprises; - and finally, to continue and reinforce transnational cooperation among regions regarding innovation policies, exchange of good practices and pilot experiments to facilitate transnational technology partnerships as well as diffusion of non-technological aspects of innovation, particularly for SMEs. �