No earthquake but noticeable developments. In the annual innovation scoreboard compiled each year by the European Commission on the basis of 32 indicators, Denmark ranked first from Sweden this year. However, the latter is still strong at number two ahead of Finland, the Netherlands and Belgium. These five countries in the north of the continent constitute, in Brussels terminology, the group of “leaders of innovation”, with a combined performance exceeding 125% of the European average.
Then come the Germanic states (Austria, Germany, Luxembourg), the small dynamic economies of Ireland and Cyprus, and then France. However, this is the latest out of this group of “strong innovators,” and it’s just barely above the EU average.
Above all, the Commission’s report confirms that France’s performance in 2023 is lower than that of 2022. Sweden, Germany, Estonia and Italy are also in this position, but it is more worrying for France: it is one of the only two EU countries, with Luxembourg, that has experienced decrease in its performance from 2016 to 2023.
Hungarian progress
The next group, dubbed ‘intermediate innovators’, includes southern European member states such as the EU’s third-largest economy, Italy (below the EU average), and the fourth-largest, Spain, Portugal, Greece. It also includes the Central European countries that joined the EU in 2004 such as Estonia (above average), Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Malta and Lithuania. This year, Hungary, despite its difficult economic situation, managed to slip into this category, thanks in particular to an increase in the number of foreign doctoral students and broadband penetration.
In the latter group, dubbed Emerging Innovators, were Croatia, the last member state to join the EU in 2013, Slovakia, Poland, Latvia, Bulgaria and Romania. These last two countries close out a number of ratings. Worryingly, Romania, Bulgaria, Latvia, Slovenia and Ireland improved their scores only marginally between 2016 and 2023.
Korean progress
Another reason for concern: in the global competition that has intensified in recent years, Europe is lagging behind many developed countries. If we attribute the score of 100 to the European Union, South Korea comes in at 126, Canada at 121, the United States at 113 and Australia at 108. Small consolation: Japan, at 98, and China, at 95, do a little worse. According to Brussels, Europe advanced less quickly, between 2016 and 2023, than South Korea, China, the United States, Canada or even Brazil. During this seven-year period, China is showing the strongest growth — by far.
Finally, this year’s ranking offers a lesson in humility for the European Union: the most creative country on our continent, even above Denmark, is one of the few that does not belong to the Union: Switzerland!
