In 2020, the Member States of the EU spent around €311 billion on research & development (R&D). This is a decrease of €1 billion compared with 2019 (€312 billion). The R&D intensity, i.e. R&D expenditure as a percentage of GDP, stood at 2.3% in 2020, compared with 2.2% in 2019. However, this small increase is due to a decrease in GDP as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Ten years earlier (2010), R&D intensity was 2.0%. R&D is a major driver of innovation, and R&D expenditure and intensity are two of the key indicators used to monitor resources devoted to science and technology worldwide. The business enterprise sector continues to be the main sector in which R&D expenditure was spent, accounting for 66% of total R&D disbursed in 2020, followed by the higher education sector (22%), the government sector (12%) and the private non-profit sector (1%; data might not add up to 100% due to rounding). This information comes from data on R&D expenditure published by Eurostat today. In 2020, the highest R&D intensity was recorded in Belgium and Sweden (3.5% of GDP), followed by Austria (3.2%) and Germany (3.1%). At the opposite end of the scale, six Member States recorded a R&D intensity below 1% of GDP: Romania (0.5%), Malta and Latvia (both 0.7%), Cyprus, Bulgaria and Slovakia (all 0.9%). Over the last ten years, R&D intensity rose in 24 Member States, with the highest increase recorded in Belgium (+1.5 percentage points; from 2.0% of GDP in 2010 to 3.5% in 2020), Greece (+0.9 pp; from 0.6% to 1.5%), Poland and Czechia (both +0.7 pp; from 0.7% to 1.4% and from 1.3% to 2.0%, respectively). In contrast, R&D intensity decreased in three Member States; Finland (-0.8 pp; from 3.7% to 2.9%), Ireland and Luxembourg (both -0.4 pp; from 1.6% to 1.2% and from 1.5% to 1.1%, respectively).
Premier Energy PLC, one of the fastest-growing energy companies in Romania and the SEE region, will carry out an initial public offering (IPO) on the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB) between May 8 and May 15, 2024. Romania's Financial Supervisory Authority (ASF) approved the IPO prospectus on Tuesday, May 7. The company is looking to sell […]
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is lending more than EUR 46 million as part of a EUR 93 million financing package to build and operate Urleasca Wind Farm, a 102 MW onshore wind farm in Romania, the institution announced. Urleasca Wind Farm is expected to generate 277 GWh a year of renewable energy […]
Bucharest and Ilfov County together form the region in Romania with the highest motorization rate, with an average of 640 cars per 1,000 inhabitants, a level close to most regions in France, Germany, Austria, and Italy, according to Eurostat data for 2022 cited by Ziarul Financiar. In the central, western, and northwestern regions of the […]
Nicolae Ciucă, the president of the National Liberal Party and head of the Romanian Senate, is increasingly looking like the party’s pick for the presidency. Ciucă, a former general in the Romanian army and an ally of current president Klaus Iohannis, also from PNL, is featured on dozens of billboards across the country. In parallel, a social media […]
The 28th edition of the European Film Festival opens in Bucharest on Europe’s Day, May 9. The event, which takes place in several cities in the country, will end this year’s run in Chișinău on June 8, the weekend of the EU Parliament elections. The program covers 40 feature films, 34 of them national premieres, […]
The multinational military exercise "Swift Response 24,” which will feature the largest airborne operations in Europe since World War II, has recently begun. The exercise will take place until May 24 in Romania, including in the Cincu range in Brașov County, according to Radio Brașov, as reported by Rador. According to the Ministry of National […]
