Sweden, Finland, Switzerland, Germany and Denmark rank at the top of the European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS) 2005, which is published annually for the last five years. As regards Greece, the EIS confirms that our country is catching up in performance in relation to the top ranking countries, thus bridging the divide in Information and Communication Technologies.

The EIS 2005 comes with a new analysis of innovation efficiency, capturing how countries are good at transforming their innovation assets into innovation results. A particular emphasis has also been given to 5 key dimensions of innovation, which are further explored in the EIS (innovation drivers, knowledge creation, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Applications, IPR). The EU-25 plus some non-EU countries are roughly qualified as follows:

• “Leading countries”: Switzerland, Finland, Sweden, Denmark and Germany
• “Average performance”: France, Luxembourg, Ireland, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Norway, Italy and Iceland
• “Catching up”: Slovenia, Hungary, Portugal, Czech Republic, Lithuania, Latvia, Greece, Cyprus and Malta
• “Losing ground”: Estonia, Spain, Bulgaria, Poland, Slovakia, Romania and Turkey

The EIS indicators play a major role in “measuring the strengths” of Europe in relation to the USA and Japan. If current innovation trends in Europe do not improve and, given the weaknesses of the new EU members, it is expected that the ICT divide between EU and the two “superpowers” will increase.

Vice President of EU Commission, Günter Verheugen said: “The innovation scoreboard clearly shows that we have to do more for innovation. Boosting innovation is a major pillar in our Partnership for Growth and Jobs. There is clear evidence that more innovative sectors tend to have higher productivity growth rates”.