Join the Dots: Esko Aho Interview

6 news Research Europe, 17 April 2014 interview esko aho Join the dots Nearly a decade has passed since the publication of the influential Aho report on creating an innovative Europe. Author Esko Aho tells Jenny Maukola that more joined-up thinking is needed for the continent to achieve its innovation goals. Esko Aho speaks from experience when he stresses the innovation islands but we don’t have integrated efforts. need for Europe to rid itself of “silo thinking” to boost Our capacity to benefit from technology is not what it innovation and move on from the economic crisis. should be.” Aho was prime minister of Finland from 1991 to 1995, “It’s not a coincidence that the countries that have when he was in his thirties. During that time, he steered been performing rather poorly in R&D and innovation are the country through its deepest economic recession in the ones suffering the most as a result of the crisis,” Aho modern times. Production fell by 12 per cent between says. But he is optimistic that the crisis has “maybe made 1991 and 1993, businesses went bust and unemployment it easier to sell some basic ideas” in Europe that will allow quadrupled to 17 per cent in four years. Aho’s response things to move forward. was to increase public spending on education and R&D, This is not to say that Europe hasn’t tried to follow his and the economy started to pick up again in 1994. In recommendations. The Commission’s proposal in 2010 1995, he oversaw Finland’s accession to the EU. to set up European Innovation Partnerships was acted “In the middle of a crisis, you have to invest in the on. There are now five operational EIPs: on active and future,” he says. “It’s about transforming and transfer- healthy ageing, water, agricultural productivity and ring resources from old structures to new ones. To be sustainability, raw materials, and smart cities and com- honest, Europe has not been very good at that.” munities. They are intended to bring together industry, Aho gets straight to the point on Europe’s narrow government and academia to promote innovation and approach to innovation. “Innovation is not only about provide solutions to societal challenges. “The idea of creating new technologies or investing in R&D,” he says. EIPs is to concentrate on the areas in which Europe has “Technology is a tool that can be applied in an efficient the potential to be a world leader,” Aho says. way only if the underlying systems are transformed Last year Aho chaired a group that conducted a review simultaneously.” of the EIPs. Published in February, the report concluded Since leaving government, Aho has held many senior that they take the right approach but suffer from a lack of positions. He was president of the Finnish innovation clear leadership and inconsistencies in how they are car- fund Sitra, was on the executive board of telecommu- ried out. It called for individual commissioners to take nications company Nokia, is a senior fellow at Harvard ownership of EIPs. “If you want to get results, you cannot University’s Kennedy School of Government and is on the just put things on the table. You have to take initiative board of the International Chamber of Commerce. and control,” says Aho. This, he adds, is an important In 2006, Aho chaired a group that was asked by the task for the next Commission, which will be appointed European Commission to compile a report on reviving after the European parliamentary elections in May. innovation in Europe. The group found that the lip ser- Aho says he hopes that his report will create an vice paid to innovation by EU politicians was not being “impulse” to encourage the Commission to break free followed up with action, leaving Europe stuck in the eco- from its “traditional” fragmented approach to innova- nomic slow lane. tion. “We are operating in a global context,” he says, And how does he see the situation with the United States and Asia creating the business ‘Technology today? “There is evidence that the environment in which European decisions are made. A can only conclusions in the report are exactly cor- way of integrating innovation across all areas of govern- rect,” he says. Eight years on, Europe is ance is what Europe needs. be used still missing the point. Most importantly, Aho says, innovation is about hav- Aho says the “traditional European ing “vision”. This should mean a realistic analysis of the efficiently if way of disconnected thinking” is hold- global context and capacities, but Europeans seem to the underlying ing the continent back. He points to look at it as “wishful thinking”. This mentality could be Denmark’s success in introducing elec- changed if Europe understood risk-taking and accepted systems are tronic services in healthcare, and how failure, Aho says. “If Europe is clever enough, we have Finland cut resources used in its tax sys- the capacity to make a difference.” transformed.’ tem by a quarter in 10 years. “We have More to say? Email [email protected].

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