Lack of innovation in half of EIP schemes

Half of the projects funded with €1bn of EU and national funds to boost farm sector innovation which were examined by the EU’s spending watchdog were deemed to have produced no successful change.

The European Court of Auditors’ finding was based on a sample of 70 European Innovation Partnership (EIP) pilot projects selected from Spain, France, the Netherlands and Poland.

To be deemed a “successful innovation” by the EIP framework, four criteria must be met: a new or existing idea must be tried for the first time in a specific context; the idea must be put into practice; it must prove to be useful; and it must be widely adopted.

However, the €1bn that has been pumped into over 4,000 EIP projects between 2014 and 2022 “often failed to produce innovations that were useful, practical or widely adopted,” the auditors found.

Of the 70 projects assessed, 17 were not based on an innovative idea, 35 missed an important one of the four criteria outlined above, 18 could be considered successful to some extent and just eight of these were deemed highly successful.

The auditors said that the EIP projects they examined generally had a lack of farmer involvement and an insufficient focus on farmers’ actual innovation needs.

They noted that a third of the projects that came across their desk had “little or no direct connection to farming”, contrary to the funding’s stated objective.

One project uncovered in Spain was “only about enhancing the brand of a supermarket chain” while another Polish scheme concerning the shelf-life and spreadability of butter “did not include any farmer participation”.

All 70 of the projects assessed claimed to be focused on farm productivity or sustainability to access EIP funds, however, the auditors determined that 22 of the initiatives had “no link or only an indirect link to farming”.

The EIPs are overseen by operational groups and the watchdog also noted that in the projects it assessed in France, farmers were the only members of these groups who were not paid for their contribution.