Intellectual Property
Neelie Kroes pushes Tech Creativity in the EU
When we think about creativity in the field of technology, we normally think about the U.S. and Japan. The European Union Commissioner for technology and the digital agenda Neelie Kroes is now actively trying to challenge this notion. Few people realise, for example, that Angry Birds and Skype were actually created in Europe. These may not trump the prolific success of Silicon Valley, but they are certainly a start.
In the hopes that the EU could create brands of its own to stand alongside giants like Google and Facebook, Kroes has initiated a campaign this week aimed at encouraging further European entrepreneurship and investment in the technology sector. The campaign, titled “Startup Europe” was launched on the 20th March 2013 with Kroes auspiciously stating “Europeans need to be creative and fearless”.
The main objective of this campaign is to encourage European innovators to set their roots in the EU rather than moving to Silicon Valley or anywhere similar. Furthermore, it has been implied that in the beginning of 2014, this initiative will be accompanied by a separate programme aimed at allocating research funds to EU startups. The Commission hopes that this will show EU based innovators that there are viable alternatives to moving one’s activities to the U.S. Considering that these startups are said to create up to three million new jobs every year in the U.S., this could be a tremendous boost to the EU economy.
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