Towards an Innovation Principle: An Industry Trump or Shortening the Odds on Environmental Protection?

Abstract

This paper is a case study on how an industry association wrote a new principle on innovation and succeeded in introducing this principle into a number of European Union (EU) texts. The paper maps out how vested interests secured adoption of this (controversial) principle with an eye to influence future policy. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time an industry association has successfully tried to introduce a new principle into the EU’s legal order. We try to assess what implications this could have on the EU’s existing legal order, with a particular emphasis on the impact this could have on the precautionary principle. The paper begins by examining both the political and the legal backdrop to the EU’s innovation agenda. We conclude by suggesting that a qualified innovation principle that balances reasonable risk-taking with a degree of responsibility could be an interesting new tool for the EU to guide its innovation policies.

Keywords: innovation, research, risk, risk management, precaution, environmental principles