Tag: Competitiveness

Greece, Portugal and Spain are rapidly reversing the loss of wage competitiveness that was a significant cause of the eurozone crisis, new figures showed today (30 January). The report also looks at labour cost evolution in Germany, France and Britain.

Switzerland has the world's most competitive economy for the fourth year running, according to the World Economic Forum's annual survey published today (5 September). The lowest ranked EU country is Greece at 96th.

While the rest of Europe protests about austerity measures, Swiss voters have rejected a proposal to increase employees' annual minimum paid holiday entitlement to six from four weeks after firms warned it might hurt competitiveness and threaten jobs.

The European Union should reconsider its “blatant bias” for costly high-speed rail networks and instead boost competitiveness and duplicate successful plane-train links, an airline trade association said yesterday (17 November).

Asking for labour market reform to spur competitiveness, BusinessEurope has identified a number of ready-to-use actions that could bring Europe back to work and lead the 27-country bloc closer to its strategic goal of raising the employment rate from 68 to 75%.

Even though solidarity is supposedly at the heart of the EU Treaties, financial operators and citizens are not convinced and confusion reigns. It is imperative that EU countries come up with a European solidarity pact to pool resources for boosting growth and competitiveness, writes centre-right MEP Alain Lamassoure.

Franco-German plans for a 'Competitiveness Pact', which were put forward at the last EU summit, have been met with great scepticism. But done right, they could help address key areas of structural weaknesses, writes Ann Mettler, executive director and co-founder of the Lisbon Council, in a post for Blogactiv. 

Entrusted by EU leaders to come up with a proposal to reform the bloc's economic governance by the end of the month, European Council President Herman Van Rompuy said his taskforce had reached agreement on the main points, but was still stuck on the nitty-gritty of the blueprint.

The crisis and its regulatory consequences are set to change the landscape of financial centres across the world and the competition among them – with Europe falling behind, writes Steffen Kern, an analyst at Deutsche Bank Research, in an August study.

Governments, industry and stakeholders have weighed into the debate on the EU's new growth strategy, urging a stronger social dimension and the completion of the internal market.

In 2008, the EU adopted a US-style 'Small Business Act' for Europe to improve market conditions for small and medium-sized enterprises and boost the economy. However, SME groups continue to be critical of implementation at national level despite the European Commission highlighting progress by member states.

European trade union leader John Monks is calling for a more ambitious EU plan to invest in green industries and jobs. He spoke to EurActiv ahead of a European summit this week (11-12 December), at which EU leaders are expected to adopt a Europe-wide fiscal stimulus to fight the economic crisis.

The current economic crisis underscores the need to adopt a US-style ‘Small Business Act’ (SBA) as soon as possible. But an action plan giving more immediate relief to SMEs should also be established, the EU’s competitiveness ministers decided yesterday (25 September).

The EU executive wants to promote more coordinated research on sea and ocean resources in a bid to "reconcile" the competitiveness of Europe's maritime industries and the protection of marine ecosystems.

The Lisbon strategy for growth and jobs must remain the bloc's number one priority despite the likely concentration of efforts on rescuing the Lisbon Treaty, Graham Watson, the British leader of the ALDE faction in the European Parliament, told EurActiv in an interview.

The hot topics in European economic policy - such as the global credit crunch, global warming and energy - are drawing focus away from the important European ICT sector, warns Professor Martin Fransman of the University of Edinburgh in an 8 May opinion piece for ScienceBusiness.net.

Despite much-improved results over the past two years, EU governments will have to focus more on "investing in people" and "unlocking SMEs' business potential" in the next three years if they are to cope with the competitive challenge of globalisation, the Commission has said.

Nine months after the adoption of strict new EU health and safety rules for the sector (REACH), high-level stakeholders from the chemicals industry gathered in the first of a series of meetings aimed at boosting the competitiveness of a sector representing 5% of Europe's GDP.

Environment ministers from the EU-27 have set out to convince business that an ambitious environmental policy is what's needed to fire up Europe's economy, ahead of a four-day conference on green issues, hosted by the Commission.

A number of EU governments could slash their spending by more than a quarter and still provide top-quality public services, said a senior official at the European Central Bank, in what could be viewed as an incursion into member states' fiscal policy.

In its last meeting under the Finnish Presidency, the Competitiveness Council has agreed on a detailed agenda to stimulate innovation in Europe.

The Commission’s 2006 Competitiveness Report says that member states must further liberalise energy markets, cut red tape and invest in innovation in order to boost growth and create jobs.

Two commissioners have promised financial support for the 4,000 workers to be laid off at the Vorst (Brussels) car manufacturing plant, while Belgian politicians hit out at the "national considerations" behind Volkswagen's restructuring decision.

Amid fears that the Democrats' victory in US Congress could put an end to already troubled efforts to reach a global trade pact, the Commission has discussed future trade strategies with stakeholders.