EU Affairs
Malta lagging behind on innovation performance
By MaltaMedia News
Feb 25, 2007 - 10:10:47 AM

Malta is still lagging behind on innovation performance, the European Commission reported.  However, many of the new member states are steadily catching up with the EU average and practically all EU member states excel in one or another dimension of innovation.

These are the findings of the European Innovation Scoreboard 2006.  The report presents a comparative analysis of the innovation performance of European countries, the US and Japan.

The European Innovation Scoreboard measures the innovation performance of a country's economy based on a  wide range of indicators, from education to expenditure in Information and Communications Technologies, public funding for innovation and community designs.

The innovation leaders are considered to be Sweden, Switzerland, Finland, Denmark, Germany and Japan while the innovation followers are the UK, Iceland, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Ireland and the US.

Meanwhile, the countries which are catching up are Slovenia, Czech Republic, Lithuania, Portugal, Poland, Latvia, Greece, Bulgaria, Cyprus and Romania.  At par with Malta are the a number of so-called 'trailing countries' which do not fit in any category.  These are Estonia, Spain, Italy, Hungary, Croatia, Slovakia, Luxembourg, Norway and Turkey.

Commissioned by the Directorate-General for Enterprise and Industry of the European Commission, the European Innovation Scoreboard is prepared by the Maastricht Economic Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT) assisted by the Joint Research Centre of the Euorepan Commission.

Source: publictechnology.net