20 years of innovation policy of the European Union

The main purpose of the research is a comprehensive and systematic study of the EU innovation policy and an assessment of current innovation activity in the European Union. In particular, the author describes the concept of inno-vation policy of the European Union, identifies the main trends in the evolution of the innovation policy of the European Union. The main result of the article is an evaluation of innovation activity effectiveness and reflection of future chal-lenges in the innovation policy of the EU. The innovation policy is considered as the main direction of scientific and technological development in the EU. The main part of the literature and sources were the reports of the European Commission. The research is also based on the reports of public organizations and national governments, as well as scientific works of European researchers. The article contains a historical background on the development of innovation policy from the beginning of the 21st century to 2022. The author examines the effectiveness of the scientific and tech-nical policy of the European Union in various cross-sections in order to make the study objective and reflect pluralism in approaches to evaluation. The article presents the problematic aspects of innovation policy, as well as its successful components. The final part of the study provides a list of predicted challenges that the European Union will face in the direction of innovation until 2030. In order to successfully implement the framework programs and get closer to the tar-gets, the European Union needs the same interpretation of common goals, joint efforts and infrastructure combined into a solid ecosystem. Numerous mechanisms for implementing innovation policy are reduced to the need to coordinate the actions of actors, delegating responsibilities and establishing relationships between laboratories, industry, states, EU institutions and society. Meanwhile, dissimilarity and large number of actors in innovation policy complicates coordina-tion, as well as unequal national interests of the EU countries.