Ireland has expressed disappointment at the rejection of plans to develop a specialised EU research and development institution similar to the highly regarded Massachussetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US.
European Union leaders began a summit in Brussels this evening aimed at providing impetus to EU-wide economic development and job creation. EU spending on R&D is lower than competing economies and some states were pushing for a campus-based new European Institute of Technology.
The Austrian presidency tonight declared that the consensus among member states was for a network of centres of excellence "not a physical place".
R&D in the EU accounted for only 1.9 percent of GDP in 2004, compared with 2.6 percent in the United States and 3.2 percent in Japan in 2003.
The European Commission wants an institute to specialise in areas with the greatest potential for innovation such as nanotechnologies, green energy and climate change. A campus housed in the European Parliament's building in Strasbourg, France had been mooted.
Minister for Finance Brian Cowen said the agreement on a network was not in keeping with Ireland's approach.
"We don't really believe in the idea of a virtual college, but prefer a campus-based approach. We believe the other member states could take a leaf out of Ireland's strategic approach on this," Mr Cowen said.
The minister was part of Ireland's delegation led by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern and Minister for European Affairs Noel Treacy.
The quarterly two-day summit was discuss the Lisbon Agenda - the EU's strategy to transform Europe into a major knowledge-based economy by 2010 and energy issues.
But a row over economic nationalism, sparked by two French energy giants merging to stave off a bid potential Italian rival, overshadowed the opening day.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, battling for his political life ahead of an April general election, said he expected protectionism to be debated but not be raising France's role in a controversy which has met with disapproval in may part of the EU.
The European Commission is investigating whether the French actions breached EU laws on free movement of capital. It has started similar probes into moves by Spain, Poland and Italy to block cross-border takeovers in energy and financial services.
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said that, while economic nationalism had no place in the EU's single market, "those are the growing pains of the internal market".
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, was critical but low-key: "We can only have an internal market when electricity flows freely and when we accept European champions and not just think nationally," she said.
Fine Gael MEP Avril Doyle said solidarity was needed at the talks to address the protection of energy supplies.
"We are now critically dependent on imported energy. Our indigenous fossil fuel supplies - peat and natural gas - have been rapidly depleting since 1995 while record economic and industrial growth has pushed up demand," she said.
Ireland had gone from 65 per cent dependency on imported energy in 1990 to being over 90 per cent today, and rising. On average the EU is 50 per cent dependent on imports.
On the fringes of the summit tomorrow, the Taoiseach and British Prime Minister Tony Blair will attempt to finalise a new plan to have the full Northern Assembly meet for a set period, after which it would be required to agree on a power-sharing executive.
Mr Ahern indicated yesterday that he wanted this time-limited Assembly to be "fully operational", rather than being set up in a "shadow" form as has been proposed by the DUP.
Additional reporting Agencies