In order to face the challenges facing the European Union today calmly and confidently, it is also essential that its member states take firm and persistent steps to redefine innovation policies and create a coordinated practice of applied research with the express purpose of contributing to economic growth. Responses to the challenges of the future must be anchored in political guidelines that can be credibly translated into programs whose implementation produces measurable results. With an institutional framework between the member states in the field of coordinated policies for innovation, R&D and technologies applied to industrial development, the European Union will have greater powers to respond with positive results to the challenges of the present and the future.