The European Union must reform its economy if it is to compete with the U.S. and China, U.K. Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said
Published:
26 June 2004 y., Saturday
EU leaders last week agreed a new constitution for the union, which on May 1 expanded from 15 to 25 member states with the addition of former communist countries including Poland and the Czech Republic. ``Enlargement this year has also forced its members to confront the need for reform,'' Straw said at a forum in London hosted by Bloomberg LP. ``Now that the EU's institutions are in good shape, Europe cannot rest on its laurels. The EU needs now to focus on economic reform, if it is to meet the challenge of global competition.''
The Eurozone area GDP grew 0.5 percent last year, compared with 3.1 percent for the U.S., 9.1 percent for China and 2.2 percent for the U.K. ``If Europe's economies are to compete, we need to cut back unnecessary and outdated EU regulation, and ensure that any new regulation makes us more, not less competitive,'' Straw said. ``Europe in its original conception was about self-sufficiency, in food, in energy and then in manufacturing. Now we live in a world of global competition. Today, it's about ensuring we can meet that competition.''
Šaltinis:
Bloomberg
Copying, publishing, announcing any information from the News.lt portal without written permission of News.lt editorial office is prohibited.
The most popular articles
On 28 July at the square in front of the Ministry of National Defence the solemn initiation ceremony of the assigning of the Chief of Defence of the Republic of Lithuania was held.
more »
On 28 July, Lithuania’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Vygaudas Ušackas met with Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina Sven Alkalaj, who was paying an official visit to Lithuania.
more »
Lithuanian Minister of National Defence and Estonian Defence Minister by phone discussed readiness of Baltic Battalion to be on duty in NATO Response Force after the information that due to extremely difficult economic situation Latvia will decrease its input into the battalion.
more »
In the evening of 27 July in Brussels at the end of the EU foreign ministers’ meeting and before the EU-Belarus consultations, Lithuania’s Minister of Foreign Affairs V. Ušackas met with Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belarus S. Martynov.
more »
On 27 July in Brussels, Lithuania’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Vygaudas Ušackas and EU Foreign Ministers discussed the situation in Georgia and its neighbourhood.
more »
Lithuania’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Vygaudas Ušackas met with Iceland’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Össur Skarphedinsson, Minister of Social Affairs and Social Security Árni Páll Árnason and Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs Árni Thór Sigurdsson.
more »
President Dalia Grybauskaitė received the Apostolic Nuncio to Lithuania, Archbishop Luigi Bonazzi.
more »
On 23 July in Stockholm, Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Asta Skaisgirytė Liauškienė and Swedish Minister for European Affairs Cecilia Malmström discussed priorities of Sweden’s EU Presidency.
more »
Lithuania’s Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs V. Ušackas had a telephone conversation with Iceland’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Össur Skarphedinsson, during which the Ministers discussed Iceland’s decision to apply for the European Union membership.
more »
Acting in conformity the Constitution of Lithuania and based on the proposal submitted by Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius, President D. Grybauskaitė has approved the Government of the Republic of Lithuania.
more »