Brussels, 08/09/2009 (Agence Europe) - According to the 2009 edition of “Science, Technology and Innovation in Europe” published by Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities, on Tuesday 8 September, EU27 expenditure on research and development (R&D) in 2007 amounted to €229 billion. R&D spending as a percentage of GDP, which amounted to 1.85% that year, remained stable compared to 2006. Germany (€62 billion), France (€39 billion) and the United Kingdom (€37 billion) represented together 60% of total R&D expenditure in the EU. R&D spending as a percentage of GDP (R&D intensity) was the highest in Sweden (3.60% of GDP) and Finland (3.47%), followed by Austria (2.56%), Denmark (2.55%) and Germany (2.54%), while lowest expenditure was in Cyprus (0.45%), Slovakia (0.46%), Bulgaria (0.48%) and Romania (0.53%). Between 2001 and 2007, the biggest increases in R&D intensity were notched up in Austria (from 2.07% of GDP to 2.56%), Estonia (from 0.71% to 1.14%) and Portugal (from 0.80% to 1.118%). In 2007, employment in R&D stood at the equivalent of 2.3 million people working full time in the EU27. R&D personnel corresponded to 1.6% of total employment in 2007, with the highest proportions of R&D personnel in Finland (3.2% of total employment), Sweden (2.7% in 2005), Luxembourg (2.6% in 2005), Denmark (2.4% in 2006) and Austria (2.1% in 2006), and the lowest in Romania (0.5%), Bulgaria (0.6% in 2006), Cyprus (0.7% in 2006), Poland (0.8%) and Portugal (0.9% in 2005). Researchers accounted for 0.9% of total EU27 employment in 2007. This share varied from 0.3% in Romania (in 2005) to 2.1% in Finland. In the EU27, between 2004 and 2006, 39% of enterprises from industry and services with at least 10 employees in the EU27 were involved in some form of innovation activity. The highest proportion of enterprises involved in innovation activities in this period was recorded in Germany (63% of enterprises), followed by Belgium (52%), Austria and Finland (both 51%) and Luxembourg (49%). The lowest rates were observed in Latvia (16%), Bulgaria and Hungary (both 20%), Romania (21%) and Lithuania (22%). For further information: http: //ec.europa.eu/eurostat. (B.C./transl.jl)