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The fourth edition of the European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS), published on 24 November 2004, confirmed previous years’ results: Sweden and Finland are the most innovative countries of the European Union and Estonia and Slovenia are leaders of the ten new Member States.

Through 20 indicators, measuring human resources, the creation of new knowledge, the transmission and application of knowledge, and innovation finance, the ESI, established by the European Commission as part of the Lisbon strategy, compares innovation performance within the EU Member States. A composite indicator provides an overview of national performances.

The scoreboard also looks at four aspects of non-technical innovation:

o Non-technical change,
o Implementation of changed organisational structures,
o Implementation of advanced management techniques,
o Implementation of significant changes to aesthetic appearance.

Main observations

Sweden and Finland maintain their leadership positions. Germany and Denmark are performing well above the EU average, with Denmark moving ahead quickly. Netherlands, Ireland and France are slowing down and most of the new EU Member States seem to be catching up.

Luxembourg performs best in three out of the four categories relating to the non-technical aspects of innovation. Germany comes second in all four. Several countries considered as average or poor performers on the overall scoreboard, such as Luxembourg, Italy, Greece, Portugal, Estonia and Slovenia, perform much better according to the indicators for non-technical change.

This reflects, according to EIS, a “substantial changes to organisation and management, as part of a modernisation process, that may provide the necessary foundation for both an increase in per capita GDP and the capacity to innovate”.

EIS indicates that the gap between the EU and the US and Japan remains constant. The gap between the EU and the US is explained by three indicators: patents, percentage of the working population with tertiary education and research expenditure.

Perspectives

The EIS working paper will be used to identify the main innovation policy changes, needed in order to reach the Lisbon objectives. In this respect, the Commission intends establish a policy dialogue with the Member States to establishing a common framework of innovation policy objectives.

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