EU Commission Enterprise and Industry - 07/11/08

Introducing innovation: Eight years after the Lisbon Agenda was launched, the EU is still behind on innovation.
"The difficulties faced by European companies trying to create innovative products and services and launch them successfully on the markets prompted EU leaders to adopt the Lisbon Agenda in 2000. Eight years on and, despite the agenda's aim of making Europe the world's most competitive knowledge-based economy, the EU still suffers from an ‘innovation gap' compared to its main rivals. So what is standing in the way of Europe doing better and will it improve?
The European Commission's latest annual assessment of the EU's innovation performance paints a dispiriting picture. Measuring such variables as participation in tertiary education, availability of early-stage venture capital, patents and hi-tech exports, it finds that overall Europe is lagging behind the US and Japan. Following reports in 2005 and 2006 which seemed to show a significant improvement, the 2007 report found only “very modest” reductions in the innovation gap." [EuropeanVoice]