Here are my notes and they are not comprehensive of course.
We had a great panel today:
Augusto Lopez-Carlos, Chief Economist and Director, Global Competitiveness Programme, World Economic Forum
Laurens Jan Brinkhorst, Minister of Economic Affairs of the Netherlands
Leszek Balcerowicz, Governor of the National Bank of Poland
Elizabeth Padmore, Partner and Director, Policy and Corporate Affairs, Accenture
Leif Pagrotsky, Minister for Trade and Industry of Sweden
"The Lisbon agenda: make Europe the most competitive and dynamic economy in the world by 2010"
When the Lisbon agenda was launched, the agenda was very ambitious but what could not have been foreseen is that global economy was about to enter a global recession so fiscal problems, instability in growth became the short term agenda.
In 2004, we are bringing in a set of countries that have delivered incredible results in the last 15 years. Could Estonia and the other accessing countries play a major role in European growth ?
Laurens Jan Brinkhorst, Minister of Economic Affairs of the Netherlands
Can Europe regain competitiveness ?
-It has to be taken into account that inside Europe there is enormous amount of diversity in the 15 and in the 10, these countries are very different. The Nordic region is leading the way in terms of economic results, Sweden is higher than the USA itself in many aspects. You just can't import the US model in Europe even though that is what the americans often tell us, "just do like we did".
-Ireland had incredible results
-the biggest problem is Germany and France with their unemployment and poor growth rates.
-Italy slides backwards in unemployment
How to get the group as a whole going ?
Some of the new countries do extremely better than Old Europe in many aspects. The dynamism of these countries with the young population can help us. They have younger political leaders and a highest percentage of entrepreneurs willing to change the situation, they are used to change.
Leszek Balcerowicz, Governor of the National Bank of Poland
How can we pretend to have a knowledge based Economy without high University budgets ?
Elizabeth Padmore, Partner and Director, Policy and Corporate Affairs, Accenture
Estonia is by far ahead of all countries in e-government.
The countries joining the EU are hugely vibrant and innovative and entrepreneurial, they may act as a wake up call. They will issue a challenge to the old members.
We do not invest enough in education in all European countries, (Educational budgets represent 2% of GDP in the EU versus 3% in the US). 400 000 researchers trained in Europe have chosen to go to the US at this exact moment and this is a very important issue, brain drain.
Leif Pagrotsky, Minister for Trade and Industry of Sweden
New members will contribute a lot.
-the ten new members are used to change, imagine the pace of change in the last 15 years they have been through and compare it to the change in our Countries.
The ability to live through change is a major sign of creativity and dynamism.
-the new Countries have younger politicians and business managers, they are more likely to be early adopters of new ways of thinking and doing things
-the level of education is very high and knowledge is the key currency or even the single currency of the world
For the first time we have a group of countries with a level of education far above economic development. In many developing Countries outside of the EU, these countries have to make the educational basis first -here they do not have to- which gives them an incredible advantage and that is the reason they can change so fast. The good news is that this high level of education can also be maintained easily.
We must avoid having rigid universities and have competition between universities and research. I have always been in favor of competition. I don't see the new members as competitors but as people who will bring more competitivy and growth in the future. We should see enlargment as a vitamin injection to our EU affairs.
Leszek Balcerowicz, Governor of the National Bank of Poland
How can we improve the entrepreneurial spirit in Europe ? It is absolutely key to the success of Europe. We should make the process of creating a company very easy and fast. In italy for example, it takes a lot of time and efforts to create a company. Entrepreneurial spirit is absolutely key to Europe's success.
Elizabeth Padmore, Partner and Director, Policy and Corporate Affairs, Accenture, on Entrepreneurship.
Do we reward intelligent failure ? Elizabeth Padmore took the example of an entrepreneur failing a company and explained that a failure can be excellent in an entrepreneur profile: "if somebody has not failed then he has not tried hard enough". Then Elizabeth Padmore explained how her thirteen years old kid tried to start a company directly on the Internet by opening a resellers account in an Internet site, without telling her. "Kids are entrepreneurs but we beat them out, we push them against boundaries, they lose their entrepreneurial spirit as they grow up".
Let me talk about a survey we made amongst 500 leaders around the world. One incredible result is that when you ask all these leaders what country is leading the World in terms of entrepreneurship the huge majority of them answer the USA. Almost all Europeans answered "the USA" but what is even more interesting is that all Americans answered USA too. They have confidence and awareness about their leadership. People don't follow pessimists, would you invest in a CEO that has no confidence in himself ? We should restore optimism in European leaders and Entrepreneurs minds.
Leif Pagrotsky, Minister for Trade and Industry of Sweden was asked if the Swedish model was exportable.
Augusto Lopez-Carlos asked how can they have such high tax rates ?
Leif Pagrotsky answered that Nordic countries are a group of their own.
Everybody focus on the disadvantages of high tax rates. Growth means change. In every country and individual there is resistance to change. If you create a level of security and education (like give people the possibility of preparing for a year for a new job for example), people will actually be ready to take risks and be ready for change. Do secure people dare more ?
We have the financial ressources to have an ambitious education. Give access to computers to everybody and that keeps productivity high. We do not experience any resistance for modernization from the trade unions even if modernization means often jobs disappearing, the trade unions understand other jobs are created in the sectors of the future. Every body is in favor of these changes.
There are several ways to achieve flexibility. Our nordic model works for us but it may not work for other Countries.
About the high taxes now. We are the first ones accountable for how we spend the public money. As long as people feel we spend it right, people accept to pay it. The public money should go to innovation and education. Some Countries are spending it too much on protecting people.
"Protecting the past is a higher priority than preparing the future" is my conclusion to all my years working with the EU. This is the chance of the new countries, they have young leaders in politics who understand they should work for the future, not the past, they only look forward. Many Old Europe countries politicians spend their time trying to fix past problems and forget about the future.
Now, some comments on my side.
I have been impressed by Leif Pagrotsky's speech about investing in the future. I would focus on one key result Sweden achieved, the Internet penetration in the Country shows how much people are educated with it and ready for this part of the future.
I also cannot help thinking how France is again totally out of these debates. Very few political Leaders were in Davos this year, non are at the European Economic Summit to my knowledge, very few French business Leaders are here. I feel bad about France for that reason, how can there be such a low interest in getting part in these talks ? I am listening carefully to other EU Countries leaders and must say I am very impressed.
I had several discussions with Participants about France and Germany pretending to be the core two players of the EU and what I feel more and more is that they are the Leaders of protecting the past when I hear results achieved by Sweden, Ireland, Estonia and the growth rate in the Accessing Countries as a whole. More important than that is the "hunger to succeed" we can feel in these countries.
What do you think about it ?
Please comment on The Forum weblog note
Both Six Apart's team in the US and our team here in Europe are happy to announce that we have just launched 
April 13, 2004
