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[In fact, what we're learning from the results of the barometer is that the issues]
[that we're tackling in preparation for the launch of our Innovation Union flagship]
[policy initiative is that all of the issues that we're tackling]
[in that are the issues that are raised as issues of concern in the barometer.]
[And that for us is very important and very significant and very--if you like--]
[comforting, in way, that we haven't been forgetting issues]
[that we should tackle in that policy--flagship initiative. ]
[I think it's very important that Europe, as a whole, works together. ]
[We have 27 member states. We have a powerful tool in public procurement]
[that I think we're not using at all to its full potential or even half its potential.]
[I think we need to focus on that. ]
[I also think that we need to focus our policies on the global challenges,]
[which no one member state can solve on its own,]
[where Europe itself has to come together as a European union]
[and decide to focus on those. And that's what our European innovation partnerships]
[really are going to be all about--]
[where we have a clear focus and where we can look at issues]
[whether it's on environment, whether it's on energy, climate change, and so on--]
[health, for example--focus on specific aspects of that]
[and drill down really into them deeply to be able to put forward]
[proposals that will, I think, get the buy-in that we need from the European member states.]
[Private companies everywhere should be deeply involved in innovation. ]
[I think it's the way forward. I welcome very much what GE has announced]
[and are doing, and I think there are a lot of other companies, ]
[some of whom are already doing this type of work, ]
[who need to do even more. I would encourage all private-sector companies]
[to become involved. And, indeed, in the preparation prior to the launch of our]
[Innovation Union flagship initiative, I have talked to a lot of private companies,]
[both European and international companies that are working and doing business here,]
[and those companies, I think, have all said basically the same thing, ]
["We need a landscape within the European Union which will encourage us]
[to come and do business." So we want to create jobs, ]
[but we also, in the European Union, want to maintain jobs that are there already.]
[And I think the way to do that is to have this whole-chain approach, ]
[from basic research all the way to the marketplace. ]
[Well, I don't suppose that there is any one single challenge, ]
[but there are a number of challenges, like standardization,]
[like regulation, like the provision of venture capital for young start-up companies.]
[All of these--like the single patent, for example--all of these issues, ]
[I think, come together to form a whole. And that's why I feel the ]
[Innovation Union flagship initiative needs to be bold and daring in its proposals. ]
[And we have this unique opportunity, I believe, where it's now at the top]
[of the political agenda in Europe, where not alone is the Commission and the Parliament]
[involved, but where President Van Rompuy will be centrally involved]
[in a discussion in this whole area at the December council. ]
[So we have a unique opportunity to get the people who make decisions in Europe--]
[the heads of state and government--to come on-board, to support the flagship.]
[And if they do that, then their ministers, their governments, their parliaments will follow. ]
