- Published : 29.11.2021.
State Secretary Ivica Šušak participated in the meeting of the Council of European Union for Competitiveness (COMPET)
The State Secretary at the Ministry of Science and Education, Mr. Ivica Šušak, participated at the meeting of the Council of European Union for Competitiveness (research and space), which took place on 26 November 2021 in Brussels.
The meeting of the Council of Ministers approved the Conclusions on the future governance of the European Research Area (ERA) and adopted the Pact for Research and Innovation in Europe, and had a political debate on the topic of Research and innovation in achieving cross-sectoral objectives.State Secretary Šušak delivered five short messages related to the topic. He supported the horizontal recognition of research and innovation at the Union level and stressed that it should not be viewed unilaterally. He emphasized the importance of a clear framework for synergies between different Union programs, as well as between different sources of funding. He also reminded that we must keep the ambition high in relation to previously agreed investments which can have an enormous effect on the climate and energy targets.
In the afternoon, during the part of the meeting dedicated to the area of space, the Conclusions on Space for everyone were approved and a political debate was held on the topic of Long-term sustainability, sustainable development and financing of "New Space". "New space" implies the development of new markets and this is a particularly interesting for countries that are just building their capacities in space sector, such as Croatia. State Secretary Šušak emphasized the need to address in the future the fact that the Space programme of the Union does not envisage a dedicated budget for activities related to the "New Universe" and welcomed the CASSINI initiative.