I didn't realize cuckoo clock design had advanced so much.
Posted on 01/12/2006 11:17:43 AM PST by pissant
The European Union’s record on innovation is so poor that it would take more than 50 years to catch up with the US, according to a survey presented by the European Commission on Thursday.
The Innovation Scoreboard compares the performance of the 25 EU countries with the US, Japan and several other nations, and ranks them according to factors such as the number of science and engineering graduates, patents, research and development spending and exports of high-tech products. The survey finds that only four EU countries – Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Germany – can compete with the US and Japan in terms of their innovative abilities.
“The innovation gap between the EU25 and Japan is increasing and the one between EU and US is close to stable,” the report notes. It adds that it would take more than 50 years to close the gap between the average EU performance and the current US level.
Commission officials said the innovation ranking was important because it looked beyond R&D spending to analyse the ability to transform basic research into marketable products – and therefore into jobs and economic growth.
Günter Verheugen, the EU industry commissioner, said: “The Innovation Scoreboard clearly shows that we have to do more for innovation. There is clear evidence that more innovative sectors tend to have higher productivity growth rates.”
The EU’s “disappointing” performance masks striking differences between the 25 member states: the Commission ranks Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Germany as “leading countries” and states including the UK, France and Italy as “average performers”.
Portugal, the Czech Republic, Greece and others are “catching up”, while states Spain and Poland are “losing ground”.
Switzerland, which is not an EU member, comes second overall – ahead of both Japan and the US.
The UK and Ireland – which have recently boasted high economic growth rates, low unemployment and which regularly score highly in surveys examining countries’ economic competitiveness – have both performed worse than in previous scoreboards. “The UK faces major challenges for knowledge creation. The slow improvement in the R&D base could be a cause for the negative trends for high-tech exports and employment in medium-high and high-tech manufacturing,” the Commission writes.
Ireland, meanwhile, is told that it “must make the transition from an economy where foreign investment played a large role...to an economy based on innovation”.
Dublin must, in particular, find ways to reverse the “consistent decline in business R&D spending”.
Germany, despite its status as an “innovation leader”, and a strong record for lifelong learning receives poor marks for its dearth of science and engineering students and for its comparatively poor levels of youth education.
The EU’s largest economy is also chided for its population’s reluctance to embrace innovative products and services.
The study can be found on http://www.trendchart.org/scoreboards/scoreboard2005/index.cfm
Socialism works...!
The EU solution......government mandated innovation.
Well, just wait until the new EU ten year plan, mandating "innovation," while heavily subsidizing anything and anyone displaced by same. That'll show us, lol.
I didn't realize cuckoo clock design had advanced so much.
Exac, why don't they just pass a law making it mandatory to innovate and create? Hehehe....
How can this be?
I thought we were falling behind the rest of the world in every way.
It is sad to see these former world super powers reduced to tourist attractions.... When I was first out of college I traveled thru Europe for the summer before working (already had the job lined up). My friends and I met a Swedish businessman at a pub one night who told us that his marginal tax rate was 65%. He said that he didn't see how working any more or any harder would benefit him when over half of what he made went to taxes.... Right then I knew that things were different over there... I am dual citizen - Irish and American - and I am staying here. Maybe I'll go live there after retirement....
Sun Rises in East
Object Dropped from Building Falls to Ground
Francisco Franco Still Dead
Isn't that a Kiwi clock?
>>He said that he didn't see how working any more or any harder would benefit him when over half of what he made went to taxes....<<
That's it in a nutshell...there's no real incentive to being an achiever. They're not rewarded, they're punished.
False choice.
Interestingly the US is ranked right in between Germany and Denmark, which comes directly after Japan, with Sweden and Switzerland being ahead of those four.
Turkey, on the other hand is ranked last in the study, with only one third of the points the "weakest" EU states got (Malta, Latvia etc.).
I think if you look closely, you'll see that the litte birdie has wings, which means that whatever type of bird it may be, it is certainly not a kiwi.
I was going by the "Auckland" on the graphic. ;o)
Right, and let's put bigger holes in the cheese - we'll get more points for "innovation."
Orson Welles
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