Enel: Too much austerity will slow Europe down

For the Managing Director Fulvio Conti, the only answer to today’s challenges is innovation
Minister of Research Profumo: “We worked to align Italy with the rest of the EU”

Research and innovation: Europe’s answer to the global economic crisis must inevitably pass through here too. Enel launched a clear message from Brussels where the group presented Enel foundation,  created last year to celebrate its 50^th anniversary, to the European Parliament. If we continue to focus only on measures of austerity, the groups’ MD Fulvio Conti warns, “the risk is to condemn Europe to a decline” when instead “the world is not waiting.” Emerging economies continue to grow, urbanization increases and we find ourselves operating in an increasingly globalized world: “The only answer – continues Conti – is innovation.”

For this reason Enel created a non-profit organization to study and promote research and training activity and initiatives on the innovation theme in the Energy sector. An activity all the more necessary in Italy, where the research sector registers several lacunas compared to other European countries, as the Research Minister, Francesco Profumo explained, participating in the initiative. “In the course of this year and a half – the Minister reassures – we have started a process that will allow us to align ourselves with the rest of the EU.”

According to Profumo, to do this a platform will be required with 6 primary elements which are: “esteem for the task and its capabilities, a better recruitment process, better transparency, more attention to time, more explanation, and value of the point system.” According to the Minister, our weak points are lack of transparency in publishing data and the difficulty to respect deadlines. When there are public competitions, he complains, “I receive thousands of requests for the same thing: an extension.” And then we need more explanation, with the elimination of these public competitions that “seem to be written to exclude anyone.” We have begun to work on this, assures Profumo, to “openly align ourselves in the huge competition of 2014-2020, or rather, the European Research Program Horizon 2020.” Not only: “about 2.5 billion” was invested to promote the public-private partnership and a series of competitions for intelligent communities and cities.

This project is recognized by Europe. The Research Commissioner, Màire Geoghegan-Quinn, highlights the “key role” of Enel, supporting innovation and Italy’s commitment to attempt to “reform the structure of energy policy” of the country. The common goal, she urges, must be “to implement a European research sector,” “to encourage researchers to stay in Europe and get those abroad to return home.”

Certainly the road is long. “We must realize that energy is a matter for the EU, only a European policy could provide a solution to our emerging problems.” Amalia Sartori, President of the European Parliament Committee on Industry, Research and Energy, is convinced of this even if she says: “I always ask myself if it is easier to work on the United States of Europe or on a single energy market.”  

Letizia Pascale