The share of European Union companies’ R&D investment in China lags behind not only developed markets such as the United States and Canada, but also other emerging economies, such as India, said Dan Prud’homme, Business Manager of the Intellectual Property Rights Working Group at the European Chamber of Commerce in China. China accounted for only 2% of EU enterprises’ R&D spending outside their respective home countries in 2010, while investment in India accounted for 3%, according to the European Commission. Despite the struggling economy in Europe, European companies’ investment in R&D will increase by 4% annually from 2012 to 2014. The IPR environment is a concern, as it shows that European countries want to keep their high-end manufacturing products within Europe amid the woes of the recession, said Yao Ling, Associate Research Fellow at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation. European companies in China should have the same access to fiscal stimulus and other favorable measures as their Chinese counterparts, said Dirk Moens, the European Chamber’s Secretary General. The EU’s investment in China declined 2.7% year-on-year in the first seven months of this year, according to the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM). “The situation in Europe is difficult. That definitely to some extent has affected overseas investment,” Moens said, as reported by the China Daily.