Delivering on the European Green Deal A Private Sector Perspective 2025

Innovation potential and business complexity of selected economies FIGURE 8 HighLow Business comlexityInnovation potential LowHigh France GreeceItaly PolandBelgium Croatia RomaniaSlovakiaSloveniaHungarySpainPortugalAustriaChinaUnited States South Korea EUJapanGermanySweden BulgariaCyprusIrelandMaltaLuxembourg Czech RepublicDenmarkNetherlands Finland Note: Average for EU calculated as GDP weighted average of individual member states; Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania excluded due to unavailable data on Global Business Complexity Index. Source: Dutta, S., Lanvin, B., Rivera León, L., and Wunsch-Vincent, S. (2023). Global innovation index 2023: Innovation in the face of uncertainty (16th edition) . World Intellectual Property Organization; Eurostat. (n.d.). GDP and main components (output, expenditure and income); TMF Group. (2023). Global business complexity index 2023; World Bank. (n.d.). GDP (current US$). To improve green innovation in Europe, it is crucial to understand what sets the EU back. According to surveyed companies, regulatory uncertainty is the top barrier to scaling green solutions (69% of companies), followed by the complexity of the regulatory landscape (50%) and permitting delays (34%).92 Some companies also pointed to the fact that permitting processes for net-zero technologies are more complicated in the EU than in other global regions.93 16 Delivering on the European Green Deal: A Private Sector Perspective