> European Commissioner for Startups Ekaterina Zaharieva emphasised the importance of implementing this strategy quickly. She also pledged to propose a European Innovation Act to push member states to meet the 3% target for research and innovation (R&I), combat brain drain, defend research freedom, invest in infrastructure and expand the European Research Council.

Tragicomic hubris among bureaucrats, to think innovation would improve if they added more bureaucrats.

The EU is a political experiment that will always be doomed to repeat its own mistakes, because it completely lacks self-awareness.

Too many ideologues, too few pragmatists.

A bureaucracy as supra-national and politically ambitious as the European Union will attract the kind of staff who are far, far removed from people who want to create startups.