Atividade Parlamentar Dia da Inovação

"Innovation provides a key tool for Europe's largest manufacturing industry to stay competitive and meet the challenges of tomorrow".

To mark the first anniversary of the launch of the 'Innovation Union' flagship initiative under the EU 2020 Strategy, Fooddrink Europe organized the Innovation Day.

Maria da Graça Carvalho was invited to make the closing remarks in the final session, alongside Commissioner Máire Geoghegan-Quinn.

The first session looked at where the food industry is today, giving a state of play on R&D and innovation. In the second session, industry representatives presented some success stories with examples of safe sustainable foods which can contribute to balanced diets. The third session was a panel debate on how can the food industry's capacity to innovate be improved? exploring the regulatory and non-regulatory hurdles to innovation in the food industry.

The final session looked at how to improve innovation in Europe‟s food industry, calling for collaborative, coordinated responses which are cross-cutting in their reach towards business operators (including the large number of food industry SMEs), researchers, academia, and policymakers. The discussions culminated in a call for a better regulatory framework in Europe which helps to remove barriers to growth, inspires confidence in Europe‟s ability to lead in this key area and, last but not least, which helps food manufacturers positively respond to evolving consumer demand in a timely and effective way - both for Europe‟s 500 million citizens and beyond.

The event brought together industry innovators, risk managers, policymakers and other stakeholders to discover how R&D and innovation can help Europe respond to the big challenges of our time in order to contribute to tomorrow‟s world.