Mr Knox, CoR Rapporteur on "European Plan for Research and Innovation: European 2020 Flagship Initiative Innovation Union" has met today MEP Judith Merkies. The objective of this meeting was to exchange the views between both Rapporteurs. The "Innovation Union" flagship initiative gives scope to improve how tasks and responsibilities should be shared between support for excellence in basic and applied research at European level on the one hand, and support for innovation at a decentralised level on the other.