OREANDA-NEWS. January 17, 2013. The European Union's statistics agency Eurostat has placed Estonia eighth among member states for the percentage of its companies innovating.

The figures, which were based on self-evaluation, show that 56.8 percent of the country's industrial and service enterprises carried out innovation activity between 2008 and 2010 compared to the EU average of 52.9 percent.

The highest proportion of enterprises with innovation activity in the EU27 was recorded in Germany (79.3 percent), a statement from the statistics agency said.

Results from Finland and Sweden were comparable to Estonia's, but other Baltic neighbors fared worse - Lithuania's enterprise innovation was 34.5 percent and Latvia's 29.9 percent, both at the lower end of the scale.