Innovation Scoreboard: EU innovation good but not great
Innovation performance continues to intensify in the
EU thanks to progress made by its Member States but we continue to lag
behind Japan and the US, the first edition of the new Innovation Union
Scoreboard (IUS) says. The EU must start plugging its innovation holes
in order to catch up with the global competition and maintain any leads
we have over other competitors including Brazil, China, India and
Russia. However, while the EU-27 continues to outperform India and
Russia, the group is feeling the heat from Brazil and China as the
latter two are hot on the EU's heels.
Intensifying these efforts will effectively facilitate the use of
innovation results and give the private sector a major boost, the report
highlights. Under the Innovation Union initiative, which targets making
the private sector stronger and bringing ideas to market, the 2010 IUS
will help Member States bolster their innovation performance and
identify strengths and weaknesses.
The IUS was compiled on the basis of 25 research and
innovation-related indicators and covers all 27 EU Member States, plus
Croatia, Serbia, Turkey, Iceland, the Former Yugoslav Republic of
Macedonia, Norway and Switzerland. It replaces the former European
Innovation Scoreboard (EIS).
The EU's top innovation performers are clustered in the Nordic
region, with Sweden in the lead, followed by Denmark and Finland
rounding out the top three. Germany ranks fourth, followed by the UK,
Belgium, Austria, Ireland, Luxembourg, France, Cyprus, Slovenia and
Estonia, in that order.
Europe's moderate innovators are Croatia, the Czech Republic,
Greece, Hungary, Italy, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia and Spain.
Their performances are below the EU-27 average.
It should be noted that all 27 Member States have outpaced the US in
two key areas: knowledge-intensive services exports and public research
and development (R&D) expenditure. The IUS report points out that
European research systems, characterised as being open and excellent,
and intellectual assets, like trademarks and designs, are responsible
for fuelling the biggest growth of all the EU-27 innovation indicators.
According to the IUS, the biggest gap the EU must deal with is the
'Firm activities' category. Falling short in terms of public-private
co-publications and business R&D expenditures, the EU must establish
regulatory and other framework conditions that will help bolster
private sector investment and enable the business sector to exploit
research results effectively. The latter is particularly important for
ensuring an efficient patent system.
The EU must also work on bridging the gap that exists in licence and
patent revenues from abroad. The IUS notes this area is instrumental in
fostering changes in an economic system over time, with special
emphasis placed on the behaviour of businesses, markets and the general
economy.
'The Scoreboard shows that we need to step up our efforts in making
Europe more innovative in order to catch up with our main competitors
and recover that path of robust and sustainable growth,' underlines
European Commission Vice-President and Commissioner for Industry and
Entrepreneurship Antonio Tajani.
For her part, Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science
Máire Geoghegan-Quinn reiterated how crucial a role innovation plays in
building and sustaining a fruitful modern economy. 'It is at the core of
economic policymaking and the main way economies create jobs,' she
emphasises. 'So today's Scoreboard is a central plank of the Europe
2020. We want Member States to make full use of it to build on their
strengths and to address weaknesses.'
Europe 2020 is the EU's growth strategy that targets a smart,
sustainable and inclusive economy. Obtaining this within the next nine
years will ultimately deliver high levels of employment, productivity
and social cohesion in the EU and its Member States.