Business innovation in the EU at its lowest for at least six years

Between 2010 and 2012, innovation in the EU was at its lowest for at least six years with less than half of EU firms of 10 employees or more qualifying as “innovative enterprises”, according to Eurostat, the official statistical office of the EU.

Eurostat conducts the Community Innovation Survey every two years and measures innovation in terms of organisation innovation, marketing innovation, product innovation and process innovation. The results show the proportion of “innovative enterprises” in each of the EU’s member states.

In its latest report, Community Innovation Survey 2012, Eurostat stated: “The proportion of innovative enterprises in the EU dropped in 2010-12 compared to 2006-08 (51.5% innovative enterprises) and the peak recorded in 2008-10 (52.8%). This pattern was observed in the majority of member states.

“Between 2010 and 2012, innovation in EU enterprises related mainly to organisation (27.5% of all enterprises), followed by marketing innovations (24.3%), product innovations (23.7%) and process innovations (21.4%). It should be noted that enterprises could have introduced innovations in more than one single area.”

In 2010-12, the highest proportions of businesses with innovation activity were recorded in Germany (66.9% of enterprises), Luxembourg (66.1%) and Ireland (58.7%).

In contrast, less than 30% of enterprises had innovation activity in that period in Romania (20.7%), Poland (23.0%) and Bulgaria (27.4%).