Being close to the EU average, Slovenia is classified as "innovation follower", alongside Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, France, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands and the UK.

Innovation performance has been steadily improving in Slovenia despite a minor drop in 2012, the report says. The country's relative performance to the EU has improved from 85% in 2007 to 93% in 2013.

"Relative strengths are in International scientific co-publications, R&D expenditures in the business sector and public-private scientific co-publications. Relative weaknesses are observed in non-EU doctorate students and knowledge-intensive services exports," the report says about Slovenia.

Leading the EU innovation rankings are Sweden, Germany and Finland, four countries that invest the most in research and innovation.

"At regional level, the innovation gap is widening, with the innovation performance having worsened in almost one fifth of EU regions," show the result of the European Commission's Innovation Union Scoreboard 2014 and the Regional Innovation Scoreboard 2014.

Commissioner for Industry and Entrepreneurship Antonio Tajani said that "making innovation happen all over Europe remains a priority if we want to achieve our industrial policy objective: at least 20% of EU GDP coming from manufacturing by 2020".

"More business investment, a stronger demand for European innovative solutions and fewer obstacles to the commercial up-take of innovations are the key to growth," said Tajani.