The report suggests that Europe is closing the 'innovation gap' with the United States and Japan, but that differences in performance between EU Member States are still high and diminishing only slowly. At a regional level, the innovation gap is also widening, with the innovation performance having worsened in almost one fifth of EU regions. The overall ranking by EU country is similar to previous scoreboards with Denmark, Finland, Germany and Sweden characterised as 'innovation leaders' investing the most in research and innovation.