EU's high-tech centre to be based in Budapest

Jun 18, 2008, 13:48 GMT

Brussels - The European Union's flagship project for boosting high-tech inventions is to be based in Budapest, EU ministers meeting in Brussels agreed Wednesday.

The seat of the European Institute of Technology (EIT) 'will go to Budapest', a statement from the EU's Slovenian presidency said.

The agreement was reached after Poland, which had been lobbying to have the institute based in its city of Wroclaw, withdrew its veto.

'EIT can finally become the driver of European innovation and excellence in science and knowledge,' Slovenian Education Minister Moja Kucler Dolinar said in the statement.

Ministers had been expected to agree which state would get to host the coveted EU agency on May 30, but with a majority of participants backing Budapest, Poland vetoed the decision.

However, in a Byzantine piece of manoeuvring, ministers did agree unanimously to a set of criteria which effectively meant that only Budapest could win the prize.

The concept of the EIT was created by EU member states in 2006 as a way of bringing universities, researchers and business - the so- called 'knowledge triangle' - closer together in order to make the EU's economy more innovative.

The name quickly drew parallels with that of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a US university famed for its innovative creations.

However, unlike its illustrious US counterpart, which has some 10,000 students, EIT is not intended to act as a teaching and research institute, but rather as a go-between, bringing Europe's academic minds and business money together.