(ANSA) - BRUSSELS, JANUARY 11 - As for spending on research and development, Slovenia's companies play a lead role in the EU, accounting for 75% of the country's total investment in this field. Eurostat reported, pointing out that, since 2007, Slovenian companies have increased by 15% their spending on R&D.

Even the performance of the Hungarian companies has been excellent, and the country's businesses have come in second place with 73% (up 23% in ten years). The companies based in Ireland and Sweden (both with 71%) have come third, followed by Bulgaria, Austria (70%) and Germany (69%). Latvia (27%) has come at the very bottom. Eastern Europe has confirmed the positive trend of R&D research spending also in other sectors: in education, Latvia has hit record high (47%), whereas the Romanian government was ranked first in the EU, with a R&D investment which is 32%of theGDP. However, looking at the total expenditure on research and development of the EU countries in relation to their GDP, all Eastern European countries are still below the EU average (2.07%), with Latvia and Romania far behind (still at 0.5%). Austria has been able to boast about the highest total expenditure on research and development, rising from 2.42% of GDP in 2007 to 3.16% in 2017. (ANSA).