EU innovation performance still needs improving, but there are encouraging signs for the future

Brussels, 18 Dec 2002

The 2002 European Innovation Scoreboard, published today by the European Commission, reveals that the EU's innovation performance is still lagging behind the US and Japan, despite encouraging trends in several areas.

Disappointing performance in business R&D investment and high-tech patenting, already diagnosed in 2001, persists and reinforces concerns for the future of technology-based innovation in the EU. However, trends on other indicators do show marked improvements for the EU as a whole and suggest that it may be catching up with its main global competitors.

The EU has made better progress than Japan in all areas. Performance in the EU has been improving faster than the US for five out of the eight comparable indicators and most significantly for home Internet access.

For the first time, the Scoreboard presents not only the innovation performance of Member States, but also that of the candidate countries and the regions.

Commission press release IP/02/1885

Enterprise DG
http://europa.eu.int/comm/enterprise/ind ex_en.htm