China and India: EU’s future economic threats

By Stewart Fleming

Date: 10/11/04

"Sclerotic Europe" is facing a much more ominous economic challenge from China and India than it ever did as a result of the competitive threat from the rise of Japan in the 1970s or the "Asian tiger" economies in the 1980s, according to Roger Liddle, a former British government official who is joining the cabinet of trade commissioner-designate Peter Mandelson.

In the introduction to a new publication issued by Policy Network, a think-tank chaired by Mandelson, Liddle says that the Commission has "pulled its punches" on the Lisbon Agenda, and warns that "Lisbon fatigue" now poses a "huge political problem for the new Commission". The Spring economic summits have been disappointing, Liddle says, before criticizing the council of finance ministers, Ecofin, saying it "has shown less ability to take member states to task on their economic reform failings than on conformity to fiscal criteria".

Liddle and Mandelson have worked closely together for several years and jointly wrote a book promoting the New Labour reform agenda in the United Kingdom, The Blair Revolution. From 1997 until he quit recently to come to Brussels, Liddle was a special advisor to Prime Minister Tony Blair in Downing Street.

"Europe's innovation weakness could become more acute with the growing economic weight of China and India," Liddle says.

The pamphlet Economic Reform in Europe: Priorities for the Next Five Years brings together articles on economic and social policy in the EU from some of Europe's most influential centre-left thinkers including John Kay, currently a visiting professor at the London School of Economics, Jean Pisani-Ferry, a member of the French Conseil d'analyse économique, and Luc Soete, professor of economics at Maastricht University.

According to Roger Liddle, a former British government official who joined the cabinet of European Commissioner-designate Peter Mandelson, the European Union is facing a much more ominous economic challenge from China and India than it has ever done as a result of the competitive threat from Japan and the Asian tigers.

Policy Network: Activities: Economic Reform Book Launch: Economic Reform in Europe - Priorities for the next five years http://www.policy-network.net/php/article.php?sid=4&aid=353

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