Mr President, I do not want to spoil the party here tonight. I think we can be proud of what we have achieved the European Research Council, the search for excellence in different programmes but I think it is necessary to state tonight that this is not enough. It is not enough if we compare it with what we should be able to do at European level, and it is important for the representatives of the Council as well as for you, Commissioner, to remember that and to underline that we cannot wait for another seven years to step up the efforts we need in order to keep up with other parts of the world if we are to be the worlds leading knowledge economy.
As a shadow rapporteur I am proud of what we have achieved from our side. We wanted to make it easier for SMEs to have access to research programmes, and we have achieved that. We wanted to have better funding for SMEs, and we have achieved that. We wanted to ensure that universities were able to get into the projects without losing money through indirect costs, and we have achieved that. We also wanted less bureaucracy, and we have achieved that. We wanted to free up opportunities to use intellectual property rights, and we have achieved that.
We are happy about what we have achieved, but that demonstrates that we need to take further steps.