The European Commission has recently launched two public consultations that will run until mid-November:

The first one: What challenges for the publishing industry in the digital age? The starting point is the crisis faced by the publishing sector as a result of falling advertising revenues and an increasingly elder readership (a recent study showed that even if newspapers are read by over 180 million people across Europe, the core readers are over 45). The Commission will consider ways of enhancing the competitiveness of a sector that has a yearly output of �121 billion with nearly 750,000 jobs in 64,000 companies across the EU 25.

The second one: A European Institute of Technology? We all know that Europe lags behind in key research areas such as nuclear safety, food contamination or technological innovation and as stated by the Commission “is falling behind when it comes to the creation, dissemination and application of �new knowledge�”. In order to address this deficit, the Commission is considering whether and how to create a European Institute of Technology (EIT) to strengthen high level scientific research, education and market innovation in Europe. If supported, it may prepare a paper for the Spring European Council in March 2006.

The idea has been flying around for a while and European Commissioner Figel believes that “a European Institute of Technology could play an innovative role in supporting knowledge transfer, attracting the best researchers and companies from around the world to work in partnership”. It is perhaps too optimistic, but a good start.