The European Union’s Esprit information technology research programme works too slowly to boost industrial competitiveness and the results are not adequately exploited, according to a report by the Community’s Court of Auditors: it said slowness at both design and execution stage undermines the competitiveness of European industry; the multibillion-dollar Esprit programme unites companies, universities and research organisations in cross-border projects, with the Community providing half the costs; the court said Esprit had produced some remarkable successes but that many projects failed adequately to consider the prospects for turning research into a marketable product.
