Last year, Portugal was a leader in the European Union (EU) in the area of ​​innovative small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), according to data revealed by the European Commission, nevertheless obtaining a “moderate innovative” country classification.

Set in the “moderate innovators” group, the country lagged behind Sweden, Finland, Denmark and the Netherlands, which dominated the table last year as “strong innovators”.

Nonetheless, Portugal stood out in 2018 as the EU leader in the area of ​​”innovative SMEs”, notes Brussels.

“Portugal is a ‘moderate innovator,'” but “over time, the country’s performance has improved,” the European Commission said in the report.

Contributing to this improvement are, according to Brussels, “particularly high scores on SME internal innovation, broadband penetration and SMEs with innovative products or processes”.

Other EU leaders in specific areas last year were Denmark (for human resources and conditions conducive to innovation), Luxembourg (for attractive research systems), France (for funding and support), Germany ), Austria (by links), Malta (by intellectual assets) and Ireland (by repercussions on employment and sales).

In this report, Member States are divided into groups according to the score.

With regard to the EU average, “the EU’s innovation performance has increased by 8.8% since 2011”, points out Brussels, noting that since that year “innovation performance has improved in 25 countries” of the Union.

Compared to the rest of the world, “the EU surpassed the United States” in the area of ​​innovation, it also competed “Brazil”, India, Russia and South Africa.

“China, however, is recovering three times faster than the EU’s growth performance in terms of innovation. With respect to Japan and South Korea, the EU is losing ground, “concludes Brussels in the European Innovation Scoreboard.

By Jornal Económico, July 2019