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The innovation becomes vital for increasing the competitiveness of national economies. Innovation means investment in R & D by the private sector, large research institutions and extensive collaborations between universities and industry. The aim of this paper is to study the relationship between innovation and competitiveness in European Union countries. Ensuring future economic growth will require solutions that are more creative than any we have seen so far. The European economies faced a long period of low growth and it is the time to re-build more competitive economic environment for a new period of growth. For this it is necessary to analyze the evolution from the last 10 years' period in order to be able to design new growth strategies. In the same time, there are new challenges especially regarding the resource consumption, environmental issues and social problems. A more competitive economy is the place where economic, environmental and social factors are harmonized to create growth and well-being for the population. The research methodology is based on a correlation analysis of the data collected from the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Report between 2008-2017. The results show results show that almost 10 years after the financial crisis, economies in the European Union countries have a strong correlation in terms of innovation and competitiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At present, it is widely accepted that the innovation represents the engine for the economic development, increasing the quality of life and building a sustainable future for humanity. Innovation exists from the beginning of mankind, in various forms, but only during the last century, its role increased continuously and became a fundamental element in the development process. European Union started to assess the performance in innovation from 2001 with European Innovation Scoreboard, a composite indicator that covers the multiple aspects of innovation in each EU country and, also, at the level at whole union. In the same time, every year, the EU performance in innovation is compared with the achievements of the major international competitors, in order to see what is the position of EU in international competition and which are the possibilities to enhance its innovation performance. The tool used for this international comparison is similar with European Innovation Scoreboard, but uses less indicators, only the ones available for all countries considered for the analysis, named Global Innovation Index. The paper presents the method of evaluation with European Innovation Scoreboard, the tool for international assessment and the results of the comparative analysis between European Union and its major international competitors for the period 2010 - 2016. The results show that EU was overtaken by South Korea, Japan and USA, but the trends are positive and there are perspectives to recover the gap in the future, if the innovation rate will be maintained or increased. European Union has some strength points which must be used in the international competition, combined with a strong policy to support innovation in all member states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]