Sir, Our Swiss institution has just completed MoUs and cooperative agreements in Vietnam (at deputy prime minister level) and Kazakhstan (National Innovation Foundation). This is in the sphere of independent leading-edge advice and joint-ventures dealing with new world-leading technologies and their distribution and sale. The reason why these countries have engaged with our institution is [...]

Sir, Concernant ‘La Belgique promet ‘la rupture’ lors de sa présidence de l’UE‘: En Europe, très peu de pays ont une histoire continue plus longue que la Belgique: l’Angleterre, la France, les Pays-Bas et la Suisse. L’Espagne et le Portugal ont connu des périodes récentes de dictature. Tous les pays de l’Est ont connu un [...]

Sir, Regarding ‘Europhiles lead ‘economic governance’ calls on Europe Day‘: The financial crisis that hit global economy in late summer 2007 is the worst in post-war economic history. It affected the European Union, proving the need for real economic governance in Europe involving convergence of fiscal policies. Up till now, there has only been economic [...]

Sir, Regarding ‘Regional ‘stars’ rewarded for innovative projects‘: The EU’s integrated ‘innovation chain’ has never been complete and therefore will never work. For if we have a broken link in any connected chain or necklace, it will always inextricably fall to the ground. The only way to fix that link is to connect the two [...]

Sir, Regarding ‘Electric cars push needs ‘careful thinking’‘: Misconceptions with respect to electric vehicles (EVs) and their acceptance by Joe Public abound. The recent comments by the International Energy Association (IEA) typify this. PWR contrasts the comment: “A careful study of customer preferences is crucial to avoid a situation where infrastructure and vehicles are built [...]

Sir, Regarding ‘Brussels to play down ‘carbon leakage’ threat‘: We should call the bluff that industry is playing on carbon leakage. It would be more in our interests to encourage inefficient, energy-intensive, EU ETS-subsidised [European Emissions Trading Scheme] companies to exit Europe, because it could: 1) Reduce the EU’s carbon footprint rapidly and significantly. 2) [...]

Sir, Regarding ‘Veteran EU official defends Merkel’s European vision‘: Europeans should take great pride in the fact that they have made more progress in moving beyond the nation state than any other region. Of course, it is a messy, persistently discouraging project. Your success should be primarily measured by the magnitude of your cutting-edge vision. [...]

Sir, Regarding ‘EU to kick off citizens’ initiative with tougher rules‘: The Young European Federalists (JEF Europe) welcome the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) as a unique opportunity to breathe new life into European democracy and strengthen the participation of citizens in EU policymaking, but it would be a terrible mistake to limit the potential of [...]

Sir, Regarding ‘EU to convene ‘sub-group’ of innovation commissioners‘: Convening a subgroup of innovation commissioners is an interesting idea. But I think important organisations like the European Patent Office (which has been successfully dealing with intellectual property for over 30 years now) should be invited around the table. Patrick Bodart Principal Director European Patent Office

Sir, Regarding ‘Creative cities at centre of EU 2020 goals, says Barroso‘: The EU will never excel in the innovation stakes when compared to its eastern counterparts. The reason for this is that they take innovation far more seriously than the EU. For the only real way that the EU can ever excel over the [...]