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The European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS) was developed at the request
of the Lisbon European Council in 2000. It provides indicators for tracking
progress towards the EU's strategic goal of becoming the most competitive
and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world capable of sustainable
economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion.
The Communication of the Commission "Industrial Policy in an Enlarged
Europe" [COM(2002)
714] emphasised the importance of innovation as a cornerstone of
European industrial policy. Going onto greater detail, the Communication
"Innovation Policy: Updating the Union's approach in the context of
the Lisbon strategy" [COM(2003)
112] stressed "entrepreneurial innovation" and those forms of innovation
that are based on organisational change and technology diffusion.
In spring 2003, the European Council responded positively to the Commission's
innovation policy Communication. It requested the establishment of a
"framework of common objectives for strengthening
innovation in the EU" and "an assessment mechanism
for taking stock of the progress achieved".
Since 2000 the EIS and the European TrendChart on Innovation have provided
part of this assessment mechanism. In combination, the EIS, the continuous
analysis of national innovation policies and the innovation benchmarking
workshops of the TrendChart offer the tools for 'intelligent' policy
benchmarking. The EIS points to the strengths and weaknesses of aggregate
national innovation performances. The TrendChart policy database and
country reports provide comparable information on national policy measures.
The workshops offer a learning environment to draw lessons on specific
issues of common interest.
In order to proceed with implementing the required "assessment mechanism"
the Competitiveness Council invited the Member States and Acceding countries
to:
- define policy objectives in the field of innovation,
reflecting the specificity of their respective innovation systems,
and views of the most appropriate route to achieving improved innovation
performance; and
- improve indicators within the context of an upgraded European innovation
scoreboard and to set their own quantitative and/or qualitative
targets on a voluntary basis. [Council document 9341/03]
Despite some notable exceptions (e.g. the current overhaul of the national
innovation policy frameworks in the UK and the Netherlands) most Member
States have not yet made much progress in the definition of national
objectives and targets in the area of innovation. The EIS 2003 and the
accompanying six technical papers that will be available from the Trend
Chart web site offer new insight into the European diversity of "innovation
paths".
The chapter on national "strengths and weaknesses" is expanded in Technical
paper No 2.
Technical
paper No 4 examines national innovation performances for four manufacturing
classes: high, medium-high, medium-low, and low technology.
Technical
paper No 5 analyses structural and socio-cultural-institutional
factors shaping the National Innovation Systems and influencing national
innovation capabilities. This information should support the Member
States with grasping the "specificity of their respective innovation
systems", in order to make progress towards setting "their own quantitative
and/or qualitative targets"
The EIS mainly uses Eurostat data, covering 32
countries. Six of the now 20
EIS indicators are drawn from the EU Structural Indicators. Eight
indicators are also used by DG Research under the "Investing in
Research" Action Plan for Europe [SEC(2003): 489]. The EIS is one
of the policy instruments of the Commission in the framework of its
enterprise and industrial policy. The EIS and the Enterprise Policy
Scoreboard cover complementary policy areas. Several indicators in both
scoreboards are identical, highlighting similar developments under different
angles. The European Competitiveness Report (ECR) looks, among other
aspects, at the negative impact of EU innovation weaknesses on competitiveness.
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