SINthysist
Rural Racist Homophobe
- Joined
- Nov 29, 2001
- Posts
- 11,940
Red tape and low funding 'has Europe trailing US'
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in Brussels
(Filed: 15/01/2003)
The European Union economy is slipping further behind the US each year because of red tape, low levels of investment and the failure to deliver on the free-market reforms agreed in Lisbon three years ago.
In its annual Spring Report, Brussels said productivity had declined from 86pc to 83pc of the US level since 1999, and warned that stubborn inflation of 2.5pc was a sign that the EU's growth speed limit is still low.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/mai...eu15.xml&sSheet=/news/2003/01/15/ixworld.html
There’s more…
It said the EU had just five researchers per 1,000 workers, against eight in the US and nine in Japan. Spending on R&D had been stuck at 1.9pc of GDP for the past decade, barely more than half US levels.
The Commission said the EU would miss its target for 67pc of the working age population to have jobs by 2005, or for half of older workers to be employed by the end of the decade.
The failure leaves the EU dangerously exposed to its demographic time-bomb. The report said that state pension costs would rise by 3pc-5pc of GDP for most states within a generation, reaching 7.9pc in Spain and 12.2pc in Greece. Britain is the only major state where pension costs may fall.
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in Brussels
(Filed: 15/01/2003)
The European Union economy is slipping further behind the US each year because of red tape, low levels of investment and the failure to deliver on the free-market reforms agreed in Lisbon three years ago.
In its annual Spring Report, Brussels said productivity had declined from 86pc to 83pc of the US level since 1999, and warned that stubborn inflation of 2.5pc was a sign that the EU's growth speed limit is still low.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/mai...eu15.xml&sSheet=/news/2003/01/15/ixworld.html
There’s more…
It said the EU had just five researchers per 1,000 workers, against eight in the US and nine in Japan. Spending on R&D had been stuck at 1.9pc of GDP for the past decade, barely more than half US levels.
The Commission said the EU would miss its target for 67pc of the working age population to have jobs by 2005, or for half of older workers to be employed by the end of the decade.
The failure leaves the EU dangerously exposed to its demographic time-bomb. The report said that state pension costs would rise by 3pc-5pc of GDP for most states within a generation, reaching 7.9pc in Spain and 12.2pc in Greece. Britain is the only major state where pension costs may fall.
