The EU tangles businesses in red
The UK Telegraph (via Betsy's Page) reports that the European Union's been making it so difficult for some Euro-businesses to operate that they've had to turn elsewhere:
Europe's most successful companies are turning their backs on EU markets because of red tape, a high-level report said yesterday.Is it any wonder that poverty is increasing in Europe? One more reason why, as noted earlier, that the EU, like the UN, will have to be left behind.
The companies that Europe needed to survive were instead investing more money than ever in the United States and Asia, concluded the report, presented to the European Commission in Brussels.
The lack of investment was so dire that it threatened Europe's "comfortable" way of life. "Europe has to act before it's too late," said the report's author, Esko Aho, the former prime minister of Finland.
The findings made unsettling reading for the EU leaders, ripping into their pledges to build a "knowledge-based Europe" that would overtake America in 10 years.
The reality was the opposite. Not only were US, Chinese and Japanese firms outspending Europe on research and development, the gap with Europe was growing.
Labels: Europe, political corruption
