According to a statement from the European Commission, Europe’s innovation results continue to improve, and the EU’s overall score has increased by 11.6 percentage points since 2019, according to the European Innovation Scoreboard 2026, recently published by the EC.
“This result reflects nearly a decade of steady growth and highlights the resilience of Europe’s innovation ecosystem in an increasingly competitive global environment,” is emphasized in the information note.
Between 2025 and 2026, the EU’s performance in innovation improved by 1.7 percentage points, following a more modest increase of 0.5 percentage points in the previous year. Although all EU Member States have made progress, the results vary considerably from country to country.
Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands once again lead the ranking, surpassing the EU average and maintaining their status as “innovation leaders.” Finland remains in a solid and stable fourth position, while Malta has made notable progress, surpassing the threshold to become a “strong innovator” (reaching between 100 and 125% of the EU average).
Regarding Spain, the results indicate that we are “a moderately innovative country, with a performance equivalent to 94% of the European average. It ranks 14th among Member States and 18th in the ranking that includes the EU and neighboring countries. Spain has experienced an increase of +14.1% since 2019 and an additional increase of +2.9% in the last year.”
The report highlights, among the country’s relative strengths, the improvement in the sales of innovations in the market and in companies, the productivity of resources, and investment in venture capital. Among its relative weaknesses are its level of exports of knowledge-intensive services, employment in innovative companies, and reduced spending on R&D in the business sector.
