Press Second meeting of the Group of Friends of the EIT

Press Releases | 21-09-2011 in Informação à Imprensa

Second meeting of the Group of Friends of the EIT

2011-09-21

By the end of this year, the Commission will propose a Strategic Innovation Agenda (SIA) to the co-legislators which will set out the future of the EIT for the next 7 years including a proposal for a potentially modified EIT Regulation.

In this perspective, an informal group of MEP - the Friends of EIT- was created with the objective to exchange openly on the EIT and its future strategy while raising awareness about this project.

During the first meeting of the Friend of EIT group last march, there was an extensive exchange on the achievements of the EIT and its potential development. Since March, the work has progressed substantially with a contribution of the EIT itself regarding the Strategic Innovation Agenda, the results of open consultation on the future of the EIT or the proposal by the Commission on the next Multi-annual financial framework.

In the group's second meeting, there were discussed the different orientations for the EIT. In the agenda, there were introductory remarks by Commissioner Vassiliou and Maria da Graça Carvalho.

After a short introduction by Alexander Von Gabain, Chairman of the board of the EIT, each of the three KIC CEO gave the opportunity to present briefly its KICs, its main objectives and main achievements so far. During the meeting there were presented:

Diego Pavia, CEO of KIC InnoEnergy
Mary Ritter, CEO of Climate KIC
Willem Jonker, CEO of EIT ICT Labs

As well as the new management of the EIT represented by:

Alexander Von Gabain, Chairman of the board
Jose Manuel Leceta, Director of the EIT

Afterwards, Commissioner Vassiliou gave a short overview of the direction of the upcoming SIA setting out the future of the EIT. The SIA will be proposed by the Commission by the end of the year and presented to the EP and MS together with a modification of the EIT Regulation.

This opened a debate and exchange of views with the participants on certain issues such as the themes of the new KICs, the number of the new KICs, the overall functioning of the EIT, and the allocated budget.