Brussels, 18/03/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 18 March, the largest European employers' organisation, BusinessEurope, published a Reform Barometer. According to this instrument, only 22% of the socio-economic country specific policy recommendations for member states had been fully met.
In a press release, Markus J. Beyrer, director general of BUSINESSEUROPE said, “Those EU countries that have reformed in recent years, particularly Ireland, Portugal and Spain but also the Baltic states, are already benefitting from increasing output, falling unemployment and improved trade performance. But overall, too many countries have not put into practice the lesson that reform works”. He deplored the fact that Europe is losing ground in terms of competitiveness with the US, China, India and Japan and that Europe was at risk of experiencing a period of low growth and high unemployment, “unless all member states get serious about reform”.
Key findings of the BUSINESSEUROPE Reform Barometer 2015 are: EU output remains 0.2% lower than its pre-crisis peak, while the US economy is already 8% higher than in 2008; the EU's share of worldwide foreign direct investment in flows fell to 17% in 2013 compared with over 40% in 2000; the overall tax burden in the EU remains over 50% higher than in the US; even with the recent fall in oil prices, industrial energy prices remain almost 2.5 times higher in the EU than in the US; the EU is the only economy where per capita investment in broadband fell between 2008 and 2013 (in 2013, per capita investment in broadband was €90 in the EU, compared with €226 in Japan or €178 in the US). (Mathieu Bion)