Europe's innovation performance strengthens amidst global competition

Europe's innovation performance continues to improve, with the EU's overall score rising by 11.6 percentage points since 2019, according to the 2026 European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS), just released by the European Commission. This result marks nearly a decade of steady growth, highlighting the resilience of Europe's innovation ecosystem in an increasingly competitive global environment.

Between 2025 and 2026, the EU's innovation performance improved by 1.7 percentage points, following a more modest increase of 0.5 percentage points in the previous year. While all EU Member States have shown progress, performance varies significantly from country to country.

Sweden, Denmark, and the Netherlands once again lead the ranking, outperforming the EU average and retaining their status as ‘innovation leaders'. Finland maintains a strong stable fourth position, while Malta has made remarkable progress, crossing the threshold to become a ‘strong innovator' (achieving 100–125% of the EU average).

Beyond the EU, South Korea remains the most innovative global competitor, followed by China, showing the largest improvement in recent years.

This year's Scoreboard also welcomes Georgia for the first time, reflecting the expanded reach of Horizon Europe, the EU's flagship research and innovation programme.

Background

The Innovation Scoreboard assesses annually the innovation performance across EU Member States, neighbouring countries and key global competitors. It is based on 32 indicators covering areas such as framework conditions (namely education or digital infrastructure), public and private research and development investment innovation activities (including patents and startups) and impact on the economy, environment and society.

Member states are categorised into four performance groups:

• ‘innovation leaders' (performance 125% above the EU average);
• ‘strong innovators' (100–125% of the EU average);
• ‘moderate innovators' (70–100% of the EU average);
• ‘emerging innovators' (below 70% of EU average)

The EIS relies on the latest and most reliable data and a robust methodology developed and audited by the Commission's Joint Research Centre.

A key tool in the EU's innovation policy framework, the EIS helps monitor Europe's progress in closing the innovation gap with global competitors. It also informs major initiatives, including the Startup and Scaleup Strategy, EU Inc., as well as the upcoming European Innovation Act, and the European Research Area Act