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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Elsewhere who wrote (36588)	3/28/2004 7:55:52 AM
From: LindyBill	Respond to of 793858

The EU is admitting they can't get the place growing. The reason, of course, is the stifling control by Brussels. But they won't give up the power. Too bad, when Europe grows, we all grow. US gives eurozone a run for its money By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in Brussels - Telegraph UK European Union leaders admitted yesterday that their grand plan to unseat the US as the world's leading economic power by 2010 had lost its credibility. The EU's top brass meet every March to review progress on so-called Lisbon strategy to slash red tape and break down investment barriers. But this year the ritual degenerated into near farce. Jacques Chirac, France's president, said caustically after the summit: "Despite the charms of the city of Lisbon, I don't think this idea seems to have caught on." Romano Prodi, European Commission president, seemed almost ready to abandon the entire project saying: "There is no point setting these objectives if there is no will to meet them. I can't really expect any major progress." The Confederation of British Industry warned yesterday of "mounting company despair" over the blizzard of regulations from Brussels, complaining the EU had become the problem rather than the solution. The CBI said ill-thought initiatives from Brussels and foot-dragging by member states on key reforms was "making a mockery" of the Lisbon agenda. The EU-wide federation, UNICE, predicted this week Europe would find itself "trapped in a vicious circle" unless it took urgent steps to turn words into deeds. The Lisbon process, launched in March 2000, was trumpeted by Downing Street at the time as evidence that Britain's free-enterprise agenda was prevailing in Europe. It was supposed to transform the EU's sclerotic system into the "most competitive, knowledge-based economy in the world". While the rest of world is seeing robust growth, reaching almost 10pc in China, 8pc in India, and 4pc in America, the eurozone is sliding back to near recession levels. European growth has lagged the US for 10 of the past 11 years. The gap in per capita income between the two is the highest since the late 1960s. America dominates most of the "frontier technologies", and is in far better shape to face the demographic "time-bomb" of an ageing workforce. The latest failure was the collapse of the EU-wide patent this month. The single standard would have halved the cost of registering new inventions in the EU, from €50,000 (about £33,500) to €25,000, to help high-tech start-up companies compete with global rivals. telegraph.co.uk