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The Europe 2020 Competitiveness Report Building a More Competitive Europe

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The Europe 2020 Competitiveness Report Building a More Competitive Europe Insight Report The Europe 2020 Competitiveness Report Building a More Competitive Europe 2014 Edition © 2014 World Economic Forum © 2014 World Economic Forum Insight Report The Europe 2020 Competitiveness Report Building a More Competitive Europe 2014 Edition © 2014 World Economic Forum The Europe 2020 Competitiveness Report: Building a World Economic Forum More Competitive Europe 2014 Edition is published by Geneva the World Economic Forum within the framework of the Global Competitiveness and Benchmarking Network and Copyright © 2014 in cooperation with the Europe Team. by the World Economic Forum Professor Klaus Schwab All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be Executive Chairman reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, Espen Barth Eide photocopying, or otherwise without the prior permission of Managing Director, Centre for Global Strategies the World Economic Forum. Philipp Rösler ISBN-13: 978-92-95044-72-2 Managing Director, Centre for Regional Strategies ISBN-10: 92-95044-72-X Jennifer Blanke Chief Economist This report is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. THE GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS AND BENCHMARKING NETWORK The full version of the Report, with profiles of all 28 Margareta Drzeniek Hanouz, Lead Economist, Director European Member States, is available at Beñat Bilbao-Osorio, Senior Economist, Associate www.weforum.org/Europe2020. Director Ciara Browne, Associate Director We thank Eric Schallenberg and Fabienne Stassen for Gemma Corrigan, Project Associate their superb editing work, and Neil Weinberg for his Roberto Crotti, Quantitative Economist, Manager excellent graphic design and layout. Attilio Di Battista, Junior Quantitative Economist, Senior Associate Gaëlle Dreyer, Project Associate Caroline Galvan, Economist, Manager Thierry Geiger, Economist, Associate Director Tania Gutknecht, Community Manager, Manager Cecilia Serin, Team Coordinator, Senior Associate THE EUROPE TEAM Nicholas Davis, Director, Head of Europe Annika Kiessler, Senior Community Manager Anna Knyazeva, Community Associate Tanya Milberg, Associate Director Serena Pozza, Senior Community Associate ADVISORY BOARD Katinka Barysch, Director, Political Relations, Allianz, Germany Ding Chun, Dean, Centre for European Studies, Fudan University, People’s Republic of China Kai Engel, Partner and Managing Director for Innovation and Research and Development Management, A.T. Kearney, Germany Daniel Gros, Director, Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), Belgium Danuta Hübner, MEP, European Parliament, Brussels Ann Mettler, Executive Director, The Lisbon Council, Belgium Xavier Sala-ì-Martin, Professor of Economics, Columbia University, USA Mark Spelman, Global Managing Director, Accenture, United Kingdom Pawel Swieboda, President, demosEUROPA, Poland Sinan Ülgen, Chairman, Centre for Economic and Foreign Policy Studies, Turkey © 2014 World Economic Forum Contents Preface v Executive Summary vii Part 1: Measuring Europe’s Competitiveness Building a More Competitive Europe: Findings from The Europe 2020 Competitiveness Report 2014 Edition 3 Introduction Measuring Europe’s Competitiveness The Europe 2020 Strategy: Dimensions of Reform and Monitoring Mechanisms The Europe 2020 Competitiveness Report Framework Calculating The Europe 2020 Competitiveness Report Scores: Data, Methodology and Country Coverage Gauging Europe’s Efforts to Support Smart, Inclusive and Sustainable Competitiveness Conclusions Appendix A: The European Semester 35 Appendix B: Composition of the Europe 2020 Competitiveness Index 37 Appendix C: Technical Notes and Sources 39 Part 2: Country Profiles How to Read the Country Profiles 49 Index of Countries 51 Country Profiles 52 The Europe 2020 Competitiveness Report | iii © 2014 World Economic Forum © 2014 World Economic Forum Preface ESPEN BARTH EIDE, Managing Director, Centre for Global Strategies, World Economic Forum PHILIPP RÖSLER, Managing Director, Centre for Regional Strategies, World Economic Forum In 2010, the European Commission (EC) proposed considering how this strategy might need to be adapted the Europe 2020 strategy as a means of focusing the to post-crisis Europe in a post-crisis world. European Union (EU) and its Member States on the We wish to thank the authors of The Europe 2020 important task of improving the EU’s competitiveness. Competitiveness Report: Building a More Competitive According to the strategy, its goal is to transform the Europe 2014 Edition – Caroline Galvan, Beñat Bilbao- EU into “a smart, sustainable and inclusive economy, Osorio, Jennifer Blanke, Nicholas Davis, Margareta delivering high levels of employment, productivity and Drzeniek Hanouz and Serena Pozza – for their energy social cohesion.” Today, with the acute phase of the and commitment in producing this study, as well as economic and financial crisis in the past, and with the other members of the Global Competitiveness and signs of moderate but uneven growth and sluggish job Benchmarking Network and the Europe Team for their recovery amid a number of risks and fragilities in Europe, support. We are also grateful to the members of our it is critically important to create renewed momentum Advisory Board who have provided important intellectual around the long-term structural shifts required to meet support in this endeavour. these goals. Finally, we would like to convey our sincere gratitude At the heart of competitiveness is the level of to our network of Partner institutes worldwide, without productivity of an economy. As such, competitive whose enthusiasm and hard work the administration of economies are those that are able to provide high the annual Executive Opinion Survey and this Report and rising living standards, allowing all members of a would not be possible. society to contribute to and benefit from these levels of prosperity. In addition, competitive economies also have to be sustainable – meeting the needs of the present generation while not compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. The World Economic Forum has been studying Europe’s competitiveness for more than three decades since the first edition of its competitiveness study in 1979. Between 2002 and 2010, the Forum undertook the Lisbon Review series, which looked at Europe’s progress in accomplishing its competitiveness agenda over the first decade of this century. In 2012, the first edition of The Europe 2020 Competitiveness Report: Building a More Competitive Europe assessed Europe’s progress in enhancing competitiveness based on the Europe 2020 strategy. The 2014 Report, the second in a biennial series, provides a timely update and review of Europe’s progress on its own competitiveness agenda, taking advantage of the Forum’s data, analysis and comparisons to non-European economies. The year 2014 marks the shift to a new European Parliament, EC and its President, and the beginning of the formal review of the Europe 2020 strategy. These open a window of opportunity for Europe to build momentum for the kinds of reforms that can turn potential into productivity gains over the long term. This requires reflecting on the progress towards the Europe 2020 goals as described in this Report, and even The Europe 2020 Competitiveness Report | v © 2014 World Economic Forum © 2014 World Economic Forum Executive Summary As Europe slowly emerges from the worst financial and European operating environment for businesses economic crisis of the past 80 years, the need to focus comparatively less conducive for entrepreneurship. More on long-term strategies to increase competitiveness has starkly, the EU is increasingly falling behind globally in never been greater. Following the vision set by European building the digital infrastructure and innovative capacity Union (EU) institutions in 2010, all European stakeholders that would allow its economies to unlock new sources of need to work together to implement the Europe 2020 growth. strategy, thereby building a smarter, inclusive and In addition, labour market adjustments have sustainable economy to support robust economic been constraining inclusive growth. On aggregate, growth and the generation of jobs. Europe’s fairly low score in terms of inclusive growth In assessing the state of Europe’s competitiveness, reflects the strong and persistent effects of the crisis The Europe 2020 Competitiveness Report: Building a coupled with comparatively rigid labour markets in More Competitive Europe 2014 Edition finds that: several European countries. This has resulted in sharp Europe has weathered the financial storm increases in unemployment, of a long-term nature in thanks to the adoption of bold monetary policies, many cases, which deprive a wide segment of the the restructuring processes in the banking population of gainful employment. The situation is systems and reforms that have reduced structural particularly dire for Europe’s young population. public spending in certain countries and brought While the EU continues to perform better tranquillity back to the markets. Fiscal consolidation than the United States in ensuring more inclusive and the restructuring of the banking system, as well and sustainable growth, it lags other advanced as the current positive assessment of banks’ asset economies. The EU does outperform the United States quality, have restored market confidence. As a result, in certain important measures: healthcare services are the gloomy predictions of the
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