www.checkbiotech.org ; www.czu.cz ; www.raupp.info

The European Union's record on innovation is so poor that it would take more
than 50 years to catch up with the US, according to a survey presented by
the European Commission, January 2006 by Tobias Buck.

The Innovation Scoreboard compares the performance of the 25 EU countries
with the US, Japan and several other nations, and ranks them according to
factors such as the number of science and engineering graduates, patents,
research and development spending and exports of high-technology products.
The survey finds that only four EU countries - Sweden, Finland, Denmark and
Germany - can compete with the US and Japan in terms of innovative
abilities.

"The innovation gap between the EU25 and Japan is increasing and the one
between EU and US is close to stable," the report notes. It adds that it
would take more than 50 years to close the gap between the average EU
performance and the current US level.

Commission officials said the innovation ranking was important because it
looked beyond R&D spending to analyse the ability to transform basic
research into marketable products - and therefore into jobs and economic
growth.

Günter Verheugen, the EU industry commissioner, said: "The Innovation
Scoreboard clearly shows that we have to do more for innovation. There is
clear evidence that more innovative sectors tend to have higher productivity
growth rates."

The EU's "disappointing" performance masks striking differences between the
25 member states: the Commission ranks Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Germany
as "leading countries" and the UK, France and Italy as "average performers".

Portugal, the Czech Republic, Greece and others are "catching up", while
states Spain and Poland are "losing ground". Switzerland, which is not an EU
member, comes second overall - ahead of both Japan and the US. Sweden is
ranked first.

The UK and Ireland - which have recently boasted high economic growth rates,
low unemployment and which regularly score highly in surveys examining
countries' economic competitiveness - have both performed worse than in
previous scoreboards.

"The UK faces major challenges for knowledge creation. The slow improvement
in the R&D base could be a cause for the negative trends for high-tech
exports and employment in medium-high and high-tech manufacturing," the
Commission writes.

Ireland, meanwhile, is told it "must make the transition from an economy
where foreign investment played a large role . . . to an economy based on
innovation".

Germany, despite its status as an "innovation leader" and a strong record
for lifelong learning, receives poor marks for its dearth of science and
engineering students and for its comparatively poor levels of youth
education.

The EU's largest economy is also chided for its population's reluctance to
embrace innovative products and services.

www.ckeckbiotech.org

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