During the European Parliament Part Session held in November, the Chamber passed a resolution backing the EU "innovation partnerships" scheme, which aims to bring together EU, national and regional players across policy areas and industries to tackle specific societal challenges. Following this path the first partnership on "Active and Healthy Ageing" should be launched in early 2011.

The innovation partnerships scheme is part of the European Commission's Innovation Union flagship initiative, announced in October. During November Parliament's Part Session, MEPs welcomed Commission's plan to run a pilot project on active and healthy ageing, the proposed first partnership topic, to test the most suitable format for such partnerships.

As put forward by the resolution, in addition to active and healthy ageing, the pilot project should also include social innovation which leads to a better quality of life, prevents diseases and improves social networks within public sectors However, the Commission should also consider existing European and national structures when setting up partnerships and assess how to incorporate them, without unnecessarily creating new ones. The resolution also stresses that funding should be secured by effectively pooling the resources of the EU, Member States, regions and other public and private players, while respecting transparency, openness and equal opportunities.

Further partnership proposals

MEPs consider that the proposed partnerships on smart cities and raw materials would benefit most immediately from the value-added created by promoting resource efficiency and efficient production throughout the supply chain.

The Smart cities partnership would focus on improving energy, transport and infrastructure efficiency and management, while the raw materials initiative would deal with security of supply of raw materials, including their sustainable extraction, processing, recycling and substitution.

The European Parliament finally called on the Commission to inform MEPs of the progress and results of the active and healthy ageing pilot project, and to state clearly how Parliament is to be involved in determining the strategic direction of future partnerships.