Europe’s winding roads to competitiveness

By Anna McLauchlin

Date: 23/03/06

EU leaders will try to present joint commitments on research and development, small businesses and energy policy, as part of the Lisbon Strategy to make Europe's economy more competitive, at the EU summit (23-24 March).

But ask national governments what their main competitive challenge is and you get a variety of different priorities cited - and an indication of why Lisbon has been so difficult to tackle at EU level.

At a recent summit of business leaders and politicians in Brussels, five member states - Belgium, Estonia, Italy, Luxembourg and Sweden - were asked the question and gave completely different answers.

Italy's main problem, said Minister of European Policy Giorgio de Malfa, is its public debt, currently running at 106-107% of gross domestic product (GDP). "It is a problem and moreover it is perceived to be a big problem by those outside Italy, so we really have to do something about it," he said.

Swedish Deputy Prime Minister Bosse Ringholm said that his country's chief competitiveness issue was trading with the rest of the EU when the latter's economies were so sluggish. "When deficits are high in other countries, it makes things more difficult for our economy," he said.

Estonian Director of the EU Secretariat Keit Kasemets noted that his country's outstanding growth - GDP is averaging 10% growth year on year - would not be sustainable unless employment increased by 2% each year, which would be almost impossible given the dwindling population. Labour market issues were also the main concern for Belgium, where the main priority is a so-called generation pact, aimed at raising employment rates in both the older and younger sectors of society.

Jeannot Krecké, minister of economy and foreign trade for Luxembourg, said that communication was his government's main priority. "Without informing the public, we will never be able to implement the changes that we need to," he said.

Article features five EU Member States' ideas on what their main competitive challenge was and why the implementation of the Lisbon agenda was so difficult to tackle at EU level.