EU ‘losing ground on innovation’

The EU is not spending enough on research and innovation to keep pace with its global competitors, the European Investment Bank has cautioned.

EU spending on R&D has risen very slightly in the past year, but remains essentially stuck at about 2 per cent of GDP, the EIB said in a report published on 28 November. The bloc would need to spend an additional €140 billion each year to meet its target of spending 3 per cent of GDP on R&D by 2020, it found.

“The EU is losing ground on innovation,” the report warned, in particular because of low business spending on R&D. EU companies are not spending enough on R&D, other intangibles, or even equipment to stay globally competitive, the report said.