EU: innovation, results improving, but difference between countries. Italy at the bottom of the list

“The innovation performance of the European Union continues to improve at a steady pace, reaching a 10% increase since 2017 and a growth of 0.5% between 2023 and 2024”. According to the 2024 edition of the European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS) published today, most EU Member States have boosted their innovation performance, “but the increase varies strongly from one to another”. Between 2023 and 2024, the national innovation performance has increased for 15 Member States, while it has declined for another group of 11. Croatia remained stable. Compared to the last edition, Denmark remains the most innovative EU country, followed by Sweden. Outside the EU, Switzerland “is the most innovative European country” and South Korea “remains the most innovative global competitor in 2024, while China has surpassed Japan and is progressively closing the gap with the EU”. “In the global context, the EU maintains a robust position, demonstrating strong performance in most indicators”. The Innovation Leaders “have particularly attractive research systems and are strong in digitalisation”. The Strong Innovators – according to this sort of “list” worked out by the survey – “demonstrate significant strengths in their innovation ecosystems”. Among the Moderate Innovators, which include Italy, “there is a range of positive trends, in particular the development of collaboration in research”. “There are persistent geographic differences in innovation performance, with Innovation Leaders and most Strong Innovators predominantly located in Northern and Western Europe, and many of the Moderate and Emerging innovators in Southern and Eastern Europe”.

Marco Calvarese