Innovation Performance in Southeast Europe: A Comparative Overview

The European Innovation Scoreboard 2025 offers an insightful analysis of innovation systems across Europe, highlighting both progress and persistent disparities between countries. Southeast Europe – including Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, and North Macedonia – demonstrates significant diversity in innovation capacity and performance.

Below is a concise comparison of these six countries, emphasizing their relative positions within the European innovation landscape.

Slovenia – The Regional Innovation Leader

Among the countries of Southeast Europe, Slovenia stands out as the strongest performer. Classified as a Strong Innovator, Slovenia continues to outperform the EU average in several key areas:

• Human Resources: High levels of tertiary education attainment and a steady increase in new doctoral graduates.
• Attractive Research Systems: International scientific co-publications and strong collaboration networks with EU partners.
• Firm Investments: Above-average business R&D expenditure as a share of GDP.
• Innovators: A high proportion of SMEs introducing product and process innovations.

Slovenia has made substantial progress in digitalisation and green innovation, although challenges remain in translating R&D investments into higher employment in innovative sectors.

Croatia – Moderate Innovator with Upward Trends

Croatia belongs to the Moderate Innovators group, performing at around 70–90% of the EU average innovation score.
Key strengths include:

• An improving innovation-friendly environment, with increasing broadband penetration and digital skills.
• Growing numbers of innovative SMEs collaborating with others.
• Access to EU funding supporting research infrastructure and start-ups.

Nevertheless, Croatia still faces constraints, notably in business R&D spending and the commercialisation of research outputs.

Serbia – Moderate Innovator with High Growth Potential

Serbia has also achieved the status of a Moderate Innovator, demonstrating one of the fastest growth rates in innovation performance in the region over the past decade.
Highlights:

• Dynamic start-up ecosystem and rising participation in Horizon Europe projects.
• Improvements in intellectual assets, including patent applications and trademarks.
• Increasing investments in R&D relative to GDP.

However, Serbia continues to experience challenges in translating innovation into broader economic impact, particularly in employment and high-tech exports.

North Macedonia – Emerging Innovator Making Progress

North Macedonia is categorised as an Emerging Innovator, performing at approximately 50–70% of the EU average.
Strengths include:

• Innovators among SMEs, showing growing adoption of new products and processes.
• International linkages, with more co-publications and participation in EU programmes.
• Efforts to strengthen the innovation support ecosystem.

Persistent weaknesses are observed in public R&D funding, venture capital availability, and innovation outcomes in employment.

Montenegro – Emerging Innovator with Structural Challenges

Montenegro remains an Emerging Innovator, with performance around or below 50% of the EU average.
Positive aspects:

• Commitment to aligning research policies with EU standards.
• Ongoing improvements in digitalisation indicators.

Nevertheless, Montenegro faces systemic constraints:

• Low R&D intensity across public and private sectors.
• Limited collaboration between science and industry.
• Few high-tech exports and patents.

Bosnia and Herzegovina – Emerging Innovator Lagging Behind

Bosnia and Herzegovina is also in the Emerging Innovator category, with one of the lowest scores in Southeast Europe.
Key observations:

• Modest progress in building innovation infrastructure and support institutions.
• Gradual improvements in human capital and research cooperation.
• Critical weaknesses remain in innovation funding, R&D investment, and the capacity of firms to innovate.

Comparative Summary Table

Edina Babnik, Enterprise Europe Network – Slovenia