Lack of ‘self-confidence’ standing in way of Europe-wide recovery

Date: 04/12/03

EUROPE needs to regain its "self-confidence" if it is to claw its way out of the economic gloom, a leading academic warned the conference.

John Kay, visiting professor at the London School of Economics, said that Europe had "nothing to fear" from the ever-booming US economy.

"There has been a crisis of self-confidence in Europe over the last decades, that our [economic] model does not work," he claimed. Yet the US model is not performing better, he stressed.

"Europe made a different choice," of more leisure, less working hours and better welfare protection.

There is no productivity gap between the EU and the US, he said. France, for instance, has higher productivity, but the French work fewer hours and have almost three times longer holidays than the Americans. "It is a matter of society choice," Kay added.

He also challenged the European Commission over its ambition of enticing more older people into the workforce.

"Far more people work into their late 60s and 70s in America than they do in Europe but, in the main, it isn't out of choice. Many Americans have to work until they drop because welfare benefits are nowhere near as generous as they are in Europe."

A Conference organised by European Voice in Brussels in November 2003 on ways of invigorating the European Union's labour markets was told Europe had 'nothing to fear' from the booming United States economy.