Venture capital intensity

Thirty years after its establishment, the single market remains fragmented, discouraging uptake of the results of research and innovation investments. A 2024 International Monetary Fund (IMF) report estimates that, in 2020, trade costs across Member States amounted to the equivalent average of 44 % ad valorem tax (tax derived from a product’s value) for goods (compared with an equivalent 15 % ad valorem tax on goods exchanged within the US), and 110 % for services. This fragmentation might explain findings from 2024 based on screening the results of 4 753 ERC projects from 2007 to 2022. Most patents citing these projects’ publications were filed outside the EU: 55.83 % in the US, 23.56 % as global patents and only 9.48 % with the European Patent Office.