ZPP Newsletter
Brussels, 11 April 2024
Report ZPP Brussels |Focus on Europe|
EU Competitiveness in a global perspective
For decades, the pillar of European integration was economic cooperation (in particular, the creation of the customs union and the establishment of a common market based on the elimination of barriers to the movement of people, services, goods, and capital). This approach, along with further enlargement of the Community to include new Member States, has brought major economic benefits to the European Union, as evidenced by the fact that between 1970 and 1980, the European Union’s GDP grew significantly and reached a level higher than that of the United States.
After 2008, the European Union’s GDP in nominal terms fell significantly and did not return to its value of that year until 2021, while at the same time both the U.S. and Chinese economies were growing steadily. The lack of significant expansion of the common market to new countries (only Bulgaria, Romania, and Croatia joined the EU at the time) and the focus on pursuing a unified policy on many non-economic issues did not produce good economic results for the EU.
