On this fine continent of wine and chocolate, don’t let the EU kill our three-hour lunches

Date: 14/03/02

By Craig Winneker

AS A mantra, 'the most dynamic, competitive, sustainable knowledge-based economy in the world by 2010' doesn't roll off the tongue as easily as, say, 'om'. But EU leaders have been chanting it like pinstriped Zen monks for the last two years.

In the run-up to Barcelona, their incantations have become increasingly fervent in an effort to summon back to life the Lisbon agenda of liberalisation, restructuring and reform.

But the more they say it, the less anyone believes it will come true.

As long as some member states continue to fight the scourge of rampant free-market capitalism, Europe can never hope to compete with the US and Japan. No 'dynamic' economy, for instance, can afford to stop functioning for one-twelfth of the year.

All this wishful thinking has been accompanied by a considerable amount of carping from left-wing governments, labour unions, social and environmental policy campaigners and the like, who say the EU risks damaging its finely-woven 'social fabric' by pursuing such aggressive economic reforms.

They may have a point. In fact, as an American of neither political wing, my advice to EU leaders on the eve of Barcelona is this: don't bother. It's not going to happen. And, come to think of it, why should it? Americans work long hours for decent pay and gradually attenuating benefit packages. Most get two weeks off a year. Some even travel to Europe to spend their hard-earned dollars. Not that they have much disposable income, even after last year's tax rebates courtesy of George W. Bush.

The minimum wage in the US is around €5.60 an hour and White House policy wizards are conjuring up ways to pay people even less, with programmes purporting to get young people and welfare recipients to work (oh, and leave more payroll for upper management).

People work on Sundays, happy for the extra pay. You can buy things at night and during weekends.

In the US, nobody talks about 'modernising the social model'. They are far more concerned with whether 'you want fries with that.' Chances are, you do.

The idea of Europe emulating this scares some people, excites others. But it shouldn't matter. Europe's workers are already among the most productive in the world and enjoy considerable social protections. And they don't have to work on Sundays - or even very much from Monday to Friday. Why change?

Then there's the question of whether the whole economic reform idea was a good one in the first place. When the Lisbon agenda was agreed in March 2000 the US economy was flying high - fuelled largely by cargo-pants-wearing, Red Bull-quaffing kids running dubious dot-coms.

Financing it were a bunch of would-be Warren Buffetts day-trading stocks over the internet in companies with catchy names (like Hyperqwest or Perspirion) but no profits - or even, in many cases, readily identifiable products.

The Frits Bolkesteins and José María Aznars of the world want to imitate this. Don't let them. They see a Europe in which labour markets are flexible, financial markets are streamlined and consumers have the right to shop for the cheapest way to keep warm and light their homes.

The whole thing reeks of efficiency.

Times have changed. The e-con boom is over and we're back to basics. The best-performing stock in the US is a chain of doughnut shops (now there's something Europe could use more of).

No, instead of trying to beat the Americans at their own game, Europeans should stick to the fundamentals.

Infrastructure. Bureaucracy. Public transportation. Social protection.

These are what have made Europe's social fabric the cosiest and most luxurious the world has to offer.

Americans do not come to Europe to get jobs in which they can be fired easily for non-performance, or in which harder-working, more enthusiastic immigrants would be happy to replace them at much lower salaries. They come for the security and the seven weeks' paid holiday.

They come for the quality of life: the fine wines and cheeses and beautiful architecture and the fact that in some countries the cocoa level in chocolate is a national security issue.

When EU leaders gather this weekend, they should think long and hard about undoing all that European society has accomplished in the last 50 years. Barcelona shouldn't be synonymous with economic reforms and liberalisation and boosting growth and employment. It should live forever as a symbol of three-hour lunches and sun-dappled siestas.

Keep Europe's economy as it is. Prices high, labour flexibility low. Americans can continue to buy their Levi's and laptops back home, but we'll always spend our tourist dollars here.

If only we could get the time off.

Commentary on the EU's ambition to become the world's most competitive economy by 2010.