To be more innovative remains a major challenge for the European Union in its long-term development, Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said in a report.
The OECD report, released on Monday, said that the EU already lags behind the United States and Japan in the fields of research and innovation.
Though important reforms have taken place across EU countries to cope with the worst recession in five decades, it still remains critical for these countries to guarantee a long-term resilience of their economy, upgrading the level of innovation and encouraging research cooperation, the report added.
As to financial reforms, the OECD report known as Economic Survey of the European Union had approved the emergency policies adopted by EU countries to stabilize financial markets, but warned these policies should not endanger the single market and should stop to be effective once the economy recovers.
The EU must continue to be alert to protectionist sentiment and should push for global trade liberalization, OECD said in the report.
The measures taken to materialize a low-carbon economy for the EU need to focus more on correcting genuine market failures and to turn more flexible to future environmental, economic and technological changes, the report concluded.