Realizing the Fifth Freedom: On the Road to an Internal Market for Knowledge

• Europe's fifth freedom has entered a new phase with the Member States needing to develop roadmaps by mid-2015.
• Upgrading from back-roads to superhighways and thereby avoiding a two-speed Europe involves four key challenges which are addressed in this policy brief.

With the claim of having finalized the conditions for bringing about a fifth freedom in the internal market, the EU has shifted the burden of realizing the European Research Area with its free circulation of knowledge over to the Member States. By the middle of 2015 each Member State will produce a roadmap for addressing the five priorities identified by the EU. Given the central role that knowledge is now considered to play in the economic competitiveness of nations, these roadmaps are not just about the future of knowledge policy, but about the potential distribution of wealth across Europe in the future. The question of a two-speed Europe came up during the Eurozone crisis, but the metaphor holds here too - some countries have superhighways of knowledge while other are still driving the back-roads. This policy brief identifies four key challenges by which to analyze whether these roadmaps will provide an opportunity for those countries to catch up: sufficiency of funding levels, engagement with the knowledge-based economy, promotion of excellence, and the protection of national interests.

Mitchell Young is a doctoral candidate in the West European Studies department of the Institute of International Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences at Charles University in Prague. His research is on research evaluation and funding policies, public management, and the European Higher Education and Research Areas.

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