Conference Paper

The Reform Treaty of 2007 established the values and objectives of the EU. Innovation is not specifically mentioned, nor are research and development, but they are clearly related to the values and objectives. The Innovation Union was launched in 2010 as one of the flagship initiatives of The Europe 2020 Strategy. The EU is to be a world class performer in innovation, remove the obstacles to innovation, and ―revolutionize the way the public and the private sector work together‖. In the process, the EU will produce 3.7 million jobs by 2020, and more if combined with the digitalization process, which is separately run by the European Commission. Innovation would be achieved in cooperation with the private sector, local authorities, and individual citizens of EU member states. Citizens should be full participants, and the ultimate beneficiaries of the EU activities. Democracy at the EU level has not made much progress. Many EU reports and others by scholars have been looking in the so called ―democratic deficit‖.