EU lags rivals in innovation game – report

Date: 12/12/02

By Peter Chapman

EUROPE is still lagging behind the United States and Japan in the innovation stakes, a report by the European Commission reveals this week.

The gloomy conclusion in this year's "innovation scoreboard" comes as the EU is meant to be dashing towards its target of becoming the world's most competitive economy by the end of the decade.

The US is streets ahead of the EU in key areas such as the number of high-tech patents and education levels of the workforce. The only significant leads enjoyed by the EU are against Japan, in the home internet sector and the amount of new capital raised.

On the research and development front, the EU has pledged to raise investment levels to 3 of national income. But the report said R&D from businesses, which would be expected to contribute most to this target, is falling in France, the UK and Ireland.

The Scandinavians are the easy winners in a weak field, closely followed by the Netherlands and the UK- the only "large" economy among the top ranking EU countries within striking distance of the US and Japan. Mid-division states are Austria, Belgium, Germany, France and Ireland.

Greece, Portugal and Spain are still bottom of the league, but are making progress. Only Italy has failed to improve its poor ranking, the report said.

Regional scores - added to the report for the first time - mainly reinforced national rankings, with Stockholm, Uusimaa (Finland) and Noord Brabant (Netherlands) scoring well. But there were good scores from regions in "lagging countries" such as Madrid and Baden Würtemberg (Germany).

The report showed that candidate countries fared well in comparison, with Estonia, the Czech Republic and Slovenia leading the field.

Europe is still lagging behind the United States and Japan in the innovation stakes, a report by the European Commission has revealed.