Recently twelve of Europe’s largest corporations submitted a letter to the European Commission , urging them to adopt an “Innovation Principle” to be taken into full consideration during policy and legislative processes.

The Innovation Principle is described as being simple, ‘whenever precautionary legislation is under consideration, the impact upon innovation should also be taken into full account in the policy and legislative process’.

The corporations argue that recent developments in risk management and regulatory policy may hinder economic stimulation. They argue that risk is inherent to innovation, and that innovation faces being stifled by the need to adhere to the precautionary principle.

As the letter states, ‘the stakes are high’, although the authors are referring to financial stakes and not risks, and the letter demonstrates the friction caused by the EU’s application of a precautionary principle approach.

The letter has a series of key recommendations attached. These include the reduction of regulatory burdens, the protection of commercially confidential information, the full inclusion of relevant expertise, and the inclusion of balance and proportionality together with precaution in a formal regulatory framework.

Interested readers might like to read the letter in conjunction with the Late Lessons From Early Warnings report, the basis of much of the current EU strategy.

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(photo: Global metallic network by fdecomite from Flickr)

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