• Bulletin article by Katinka Barysch, 01 October 2003

    Europeans are right to worry about their economy. Forecasters think that the eurozone economy will grow by a paltry 0.5 per cent this year. But the real problem is that Europe's sluggish performance is part of a long-term trend.

  • Working paper by Alasdair Murray, 05 September 2003

    Als sich im März 2000 die EU-Staatschefs zum Gipfel in Lissabon versammelten, schien Europas Wirtschaft am Anfang eines neuen goldenen Zeitalters zu stehen. Die Wachstumsraten waren die höchsten seit nahezu einem Jahrzehnt.

  • Report by Alasdair Murray, 04 October 2002

    The EU has set itself a series of ambitious economic reform goals but has so far failed to deliver on its promises. Alasdair Murray argues in this report that the Convention on the future of Europe and the forthcoming inter governmental conference provide an opportunity for the EU to think afresh about how it can overcome the institutional obstacles to economic reform.

  • Policy brief by Alasdair Murray, 03 May 2002

    The EU has set itself a series of highly ambitious economic goals to fulfil in the next decade. Eurozone countries are committed to ensuring the longterm health of the single currency, which will mean further economic integration. The Union will need to incorporate successfully at least ten dynamic but diverse accession country economies.

  • Policy brief by Edward Bannerman, 01 March 2002

    The EU's ten-year plan to transform itself into "the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world by 2010" is running out of steam. The forthcoming summit in Barcelona on March 15 and 16 needs to reenergise Europe's faltering commitment to the 'Lisbon agenda' of economic reform.

  • Policy brief by Edward Bannerman, 18 February 2002

    The goal of joining the European Union is now tantalizingly close for many central and Eastern countries. The bigger question is what kind of EU are they joining? For much of the past decade, policy-makers and business leaders in the candidate countries have assumed accession is a sure-fire path to economic prosperity.

  • Bulletin article by Edward Bannerman, 02 April 2001

    The Stockholm European Council was supposed to focus on Europe's "new" economy and the goal of creating "the world's most dynamic and competitive knowledge-based economy by 2010".

  • Bulletin article by Alasdair Murray, 01 February 2001

    Even by the standards of the EU's often optimistic policy aspirations, the decade-long economic reform process initiated at the Lisbon summit last March represents an ambitious programme.