Europe performs well in innovation

The EU’s innovation performance has made steady long–term progress, increasing by 12.6 percentage points since 2018. This latest edition of the European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS) reveals significant shifts in national innovation performance. Thirteen Member States improved their score since last year, with Malta (+7.6 points) and Luxembourg (+5 points) seeing the largest gains. Since 2018, all EU countries have boosted their innovation performance, although progress varies from 0.9 points in Luxembourg to 30 points in Estonia.

Other key findings include:

• Sweden reclaims its position as the EU’s top innovator, with a 12.9 percentage point since 2018, driven by advancements in lifelong learning, business Research and Development (R&D) expenditure and cloud computing.
• Ireland now leads the Strong Innovators group. Since 2018, its performance has grown by 13.3 percentage points, with strengths in cloud computing, production-based CO2 productivity and SME collaboration.
• Croatia moves up to the Moderate Innovators group after a remarkable 19.4-point increase since 2018.

Nevertheless, the newly published 2025 EIS and Regional Innovation Scoreboard (RIS) show a slight declined of 0.4 points between 2024 and 2025.

This recent slowdown highlights the need for accelerated action in the face of uncertainty and growing global competition, as underlines in the Competitiveness Compass, the Choose Europe initiative and the Startup and Scaleup Strategy.

Regional convergence with contrasts

The RIS reveals an uneven regional landscape, with long-term improvements and a narrowing innovation gap between the top and bottom-performing regions. However, disparities between Northern and Southern Europe persist.

Overall, 233 out of 241 regions improved their innovation performance from 2018 to 2025, with an average increase of almost 12 percentage points. However, 82 regions recorded a decline between 2023 and 2025. Northern and Western Europe dominate among top-performing regions. Central, Eastern, and Southern Europe continue to catch up, although some regions perform above the EU average, including Praha, Catalunya/Cataluña, País Vasco/Euskadi, Comunidad de Madrid, Comunidad Foral de Navarra and Comunitat Valenciana.

Background

The European Innovation Scoreboard (annual) and Regional Innovation Scoreboard (biennial) assess innovation performance across the EU, neighbouring countries and global competitors. The EIS 2025 uses 32 indicators capturing various aspects of innovation, including framework conditions, investments, innovation activities and impacts on the economy, environment and the society. Member states are categorised into four innovation groups:

• Innovation Leaders (>125% of EU average)
• Strong Innovators (100–125%)
• Moderate Innovators (70–100%)
• Emerging Innovators (<70%)

The scoreboards are a key tool for the New European Innovation Agenda, which aims to close the EU’s innovation gap and accelerate the deployment of cutting-edge technologies. They also inform major policy initiatives such as the Competitiveness Compass, the EU Startup and Scaleup Strategy and the Choose Europe for Science campaign. Looking ahead, the future Innovation Act is expected to further use the scoreboards as a benchmarking tool to identify gaps, drive reforms and modernise research and innovation systems across the Union.

More information: European Commission