Leader: Europe's MIT? We should be so lucky

The European Union has said it wants to bankroll a technology institute to help turn around Europe's poor track record in converting research into commercial success.

The institute will be run by a central governing board, which will oversee a collection of 'knowledge communities'. Eurocrats hope to encourage companies to finance research into new technologies in return for a cut of the revenues they generate.

But is direct state intervention - like the creation of this European Institute of Technology - going to be the most effective way of getting innovations from the blackboard onto the production line?

We're all in favour of more innovation coming out of Europe - but do we really need bureaucrats to help find it and fund it?

Innovations are constantly coming out of academia in Europe, the UK and the US. So the problem isn't that there aren't enough centres of learning.

The problem is more with the broader conditions necessary for entrepreneurship. And it is hard to see how one new agency can do much good when wider economic changes are necessary.

It would be difficult to find anyone that would be reluctant to see more gee-whiz gadgets coming out of Europe. But is it really possible to foster creativity in an institution powered by banana-straightening Brussels paper-shufflers?

Seems unlikely. Better for this energy and this funding to be spent elsewhere.