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Europe’s record on innovation ‘50 years behind US’
Posted on the off-chance that Europe still matters. Hat tip to Orrin Judd.
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 on Thursday.

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-tech products. The survey finds that only four EU countries – Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Germany – can compete with the US and Japan in terms of their 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. GÃŒnter 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 states including 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.

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. 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.
If the State can't provide it, it's not worth having.

Posted by: Steve White 2006-01-13
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=139686