April 27 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. scored better than the European Union in a study of economic competitiveness designed to measure the results of a four-year-old EU effort to become the most competitive economy in the world by 2010.

For overall economic potential, only the Nordic countries of Finland, Denmark and Sweden ranked higher than the U.S., which scored better than all 15 EU members for innovation and industriousness, two of eight areas examined by the World Economic Forum in its second Lisbon Review.

The EU agreed at a March 2000 summit in Lisbon to try to overtake the U.S. in economic might by liberalizing markets and improving access to modern technologies. Last year, economic growth in the EU lagged increasingly behind that of the U.S. The fourth-quarter differential was 3.4 percentage points.

The new study ``makes tough reading for European policy makers and business leaders,'' said the World Economic Forum, a body dedicated to the exchange of ideas between politicians, businesses and academia, in an e-mailed statement.

``The assessment shows that EU attention should focus on improving the environment for innovation, developing a stronger information society and creating an enterprise environment that is more conducive for the private sector,'' it said.

On a scale of zero to seven, where seven is the best, the U.S. had an overall competitiveness score of 5.55, ranking below Finland's 5.8 and Denmark and Sweden, with 5.6. The U.K. scored 5.3, while Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg and France were between 5.0 and 5.2.

Laggards

Spain, Italy, Portugal and Greece, in Southern Europe, got the worst assessments, scoring less than 4.5. They ranked below Estonia and similar to Slovenia and Latvia, former communist nations among the 10 countries that join the EU on May 1.

The three best-performing accession countries do better than the four worst-performing EU countries in almost all aspects of economic growth potential, the forum said.

It said Estonia, a Baltic state of 1.4 million people near Finland, stood out ``for the quality of its enterprise environment and the sophistication of its information society, both areas in which it scores above the EU average.''

Slovenia ranked second among accession countries with relative strengths in the areas of network industries and environmental standards.

Turkey, which isn't yet invited to join the EU, got a slightly better overall assessment than Bulgaria and Romania, which are hoping to become members in 2007.

``Turkey would seem at least as well prepared as some of the countries toward which the EU has already promised entry,'' the Forum said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Bryan Bradley in Vilnius at bbradley4@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: April 26, 2004 19:24 EDT