V mON 2020

Speech by Sir Richard EVANS must begin by paying a very special tribute to Commissio- ner Busquin, every menlber of the group of personalities and above all the sherpas

working group for all the excellent work they have done in concluding what was a formidable task to put togefller a vision for European aeronautics for tile }'ear 2020.

Given the long-term nature of our business, tile pace of tech- nology and the economic structures on bofll government and industry we should not shrink fronl a recognitior~ that we face significant challenges in fulfilling otlr aspiration, which takes Europe to a leading global position in this area of work. This embraces not only industry and wealth creation but also affects tile quality of life of the citizens of Europe. We must lneet these challenges and we should all recognise, as 1 recognise and nw company recognises, that for the future wealth of Europe we in\is\ give our full support to the vision and the objectives expressed so clearly and eloquently in this report.

Investment in research If we are to enlbrace this vision and seriously attempt to trans- late it into practice we must begin witil an understanding of where we stand and why it is so important for Europe to act and give the commitment. We need straight away to face tip to the stark statistics. In research and technology the benchmark against which Europe has to measure itself is the US. Not only is the US wav ahead of Europe in overall spend, but most notably ahead of us in the proportion of that spend that comes out of governnlent. That is a message we must send \'cry clearly to all European governments. Just to put some facts on that, iri what is defined as aerospace R&D under AECMA's statistical surveys, EU member states spend less than half the figure for the US. In tile EU, 55% is funded by industry while in the United States 35% is funded by industry. Put anotiler wa}5 the US government is spending in real terms three to four times tile anluunt spent by go\'ernnlents in Europe. And that for me sunls up our funda- mental message. Europe has to act and we have to work together to produce more goternnlerlt in\estnlent. We must work to ensure that this report provides the catalyst to secure the agreement of all the top stakeholders on tile strategic way forward. And to do that Europeans must work together. We must a\'oid tile d u p l i c a t i o n ttlat cnnles l:ronl fail- ing to work and co-operate across national boundaries, fhe recommendations in tile report provide the key to this.

Strategic Research Agenda We need a Strategic Research Agenda for Europe constructed and agreed by all the relevant stakeholders. We need to estab- lish tile Advisory Council for Aeronautics Research for Europe and we need fine High Level Group to ensure that the wider political and economic considerations influence thu debate about investnlent. And we need tile Strategic Research Agenda to ensure co-ordination and conlplementar} rathur that duplicatory work across the funded European research progranlnles. We nlust eliminate as nluch as possible the European disad- vantage over the US when clearly a single government, ~ith distinctive single funding bodies and single programmes ha~ an inherent advantage. We have lead tile way in the past in both conmlercial aerospace and defence in aeronautics. We are all xer} proud oi

the record I need simply to mention Airbus, liurofighter, Concorde and Tornado. And we should not shrink from reminding people that we still lead in some areas today. \\,'hen Airbus was formed there were sceptical politicians, sceptical economists, even sceptics in our own industry, lhe reo,rd today and Airbus status and position in tile world market h<> shown tilt' doubters to be quite simply wrong. Howmer, tile initiative represented in tills report tells us that the work we have to do is not just about indMdual projects or programnles. We lntlst pursue this agenda on a broad front. If we and not the US are to be the world benchnlark in thb, area then we must embrace these proposals - not only the specitic, but also the wider strategic agenda tile)' represent. We need to acquire a deep and collective understanding of the impact el technology, the adaptation of technology l:ronl other >ector ~,

and tile ability to enhance the flow of technology collaboration across national boundaries and between the defence and ci\il areas. We also need to ensure that we work hard on increasing and retaining public support for the continued spend of ta\ payers nlonev in continued research and technolog\ de\ elop- i l lent for tilt, good of all. The proposals we ha\e before us present a real opportunity lor Europe. But we nlust not think of them as nlercly aspirational. We must not put ourselves inte, a mind-set that in this conte\t we will ahvavs be lagging behind the Americans. {\'c' inu 'q ilOl

think of tile practical aspects of this initiati\e as 'nice to ha\ c'. If we are to retain our technological, industrial and ec~moink strengths and independence and if are to become fix' global benchnlark then acting on these recommendations bc'c~,mc's an inlperative." •

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