Eurostat the statistics office of the European Union has published the data relating to the percentage of GDP allocated to investments in the sector of Technological Research and Development in 2004. The general difficulty at the EU level as a whole to increase investments in this sector is confirmed: the EU25 average remains equivalent to 1.9% of GDP of member states, exactly the same as a year ago, in comparison with 2.59% in the USA, 3.15% in Japan and 1.3% in China. It is especially the Scandinavian countries that keep the European average high (Sweden and Finland above 3.5%, Denmark 2.63%), followed by Germany, Austria and France with percentages respectively of 2.49%, 2.26% and 2.16%. Malta, Cyprus and Latvia don’t even reach half a percentage point. Irrespective of GDP percentages, the countries that have registered the biggest growth of investments in the R&D sector are Estonia, Cyprus, Lithuania and Spain. By contrast, there has been a clear decline in investments in Portugal, Belgium, Slovakia and Sweden. For further information, consult the Eurostat website http://europa.eu.int/comm/eurostat
