Over the past decade European economic integration has seen considerable institutional success, but the economic performance of the EU has been varied. While macroeconomic stability has improved and an emphasis on cohesion preserved, the EU economic system has not delivered satisfactory growth performance. This book is the report of a high-level group commissioned by the President of the European Commission to review the EU economic system and propose a blueprint for an economic system capable of delivering faster growth along with stability and cohesion. It assesses the EU s economic performance, examines the challenges facing the EU in the coming years, and presents a series of recommendations. The report views Europe's unsatisfactory growth performance during the last decades as a symptom of its failure to transform into an innovation-based economy. It has now become clear that the context in which economic policies have been developed has changed fundamentally over the past thirty years. A system built around the assimilation of existing technologies, mass production generating economics of scale, and an industrial structure dominated by large firms with stable markets and long term employment patterns no longer delivers in the world of today, characterized by economic globalization and strong external competition. What is needed now is more opportunity for new entrants, greater mobility of employees within and across firms, more retraining, greater reliance on market financing, and higher investment in both R&D and higher education. This requires a massive and urgent change in economic policies in Europe.

This book is the report of a high-level group commissioned by the President of the European Commission to review the EU economic system and propose a blueprint for an economic system capable of delivering faster growth along with stability and cohesion. It assesses the EU's economic performance, and more.

En juillet 2002, Romano Prodi, Président de la Commission européenne, a décidé de créer un groupe d'étude de haut niveau qui sera chargé de passer en revue l'ensemble des instruments économiques qui existent actuellement au niveau de l'UE et d'évaluer s'ils constituent bien des instruments de gouvernance économique adaptés dans le contexte de l'élargissement. Le groupe examinera également si de nouvelles politiques sont ou non indispensables pour garantir la croissance, la stabilité et la cohésion. Le Président Prodi a demandé au groupe de présenter son rapport définitif au printemps 2003. Pour l'élaboration de ce rapport, il sera assisté par le groupe des conseillers politiques de la Commission.

Throughout much of Europe the preoccupation with military security that dominated political thinking after the end of the Second World War has given way to an emphasis upon mutual interdependence. But what does this mean, both theoretically and practically, terms of a `new' agenda? The focus of this book is upon four main issues: * economic development * security * the environment * human rights These are of course not in themselves new issues, but during the period of the Cold War they were subordinated to the ideological division of the continent. Now they have emerged as decisive in the way in which Europe will develop. The authors examine the four issues in depth, and draw out the links between them. They also examine the various levels at which these problems exist - the level of the `system', of the state and of the individual. Thus it is possible for them to illustrate general issues with specific reference to local, national and Europe-wide political debates.