Innovation, it’s a multi-speed Europe. Italy below average, but growing

Brussels – Italy is not (yet) a country for innovators. But maybe it will become one. Sixteenth in the EU for innovation performance, it is growing more quickly than the average of the other 27 Member States, gradually closing the gap. These are the findings of the European Commission’s European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS), which places Italy among the “moderate innovators.” A broader analysis shows that Europe is growing at different speeds.

According to the EIS analysis, the EU’s innovation performance “continues to improve at a steady pace,” reaching a 10 percent increase since 2017 and growth of 0.5 percent between 2023 and 2024. However, the EU is divided in two: national innovation performance increased for 15 member states and declined for  11, with Croatia remaining stable. With the exception of Cyprus, all southern and eastern European countries are below the EU average.  The usual familiar names – Denmark, Sweden, and Finland — are at the top of the ranking.

The European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS) looks at 32 indicators covering the economy, business and entrepreneurship, innovation profiles, governance and policy framework, climate change, and demographics. In addition to member states, the study for 2024 also considers 12 neighboring European countries and, with a smaller set of indicators, 11 global competitors. The fifty countries analyzed fall into four groups: the most virtuous, Innovation Leaders, Emerging Innovators, Strong Innovators, and Moderate Innovators.

Two countries have changed performance categories since 2023: Estonia has moved from Moderate to Strong Innovator, while Belgium, an Innovation Leader, has been downgraded to Strong Innovator while maintaining fifth position in the overall EU ranking. The European Commission’s analysis underscores a worrying trend in the medium term: between 2017 and 2024, the gap between Innovation Leaders and Emerging Innovators has gradually widened.

The section on Italy highlights strengths – such as resource productivity and small and medium-sized enterprises introducing product innovations – and weaknesses, namely, the share of the population with tertiary education and the low attractiveness of doctorates for foreign students. In the overall EU ranking, Italy is behind Malta, Lithuania, Portugal, Greece, Hungary, Croatia, Poland, Slovakia, Austria, Bulgaria, and Romania.