To the CER, however, this year's heroes and villains are:
“Austria, which has done well in copying the Nordic model of "flexicurity'; Estonia , a small, nimble newcomer that has moved ahead quickly; and the Netherlands , the only EU country that combines high employment with high productivity. Our "villains' are Greece and Italy, which continue to combine poorly functioning markets with mediocre social outcomes. Some of the new member- states also need to raise their game if they want to cope with competition from emerging Asia.”
Britain leads the ‘brat pack’ of large European economies, given its competitive product markets one of the Union's most flexible labour markets. And while Germany moves up a spot in the ranking, the authors caution that large economies have to keep the reform pressure up, as they still bring in 75% of the Union's GDP. They criticize Germany's over-dependence on exports as much as they do France's low employment rate.
The entire report, compared with earlier versions, gives a well-rounded perspective on whether (or NOT!) the Member States are making good on the lofty ideals once agreed to in Lisbon. Its concrete and factual discussion is surely more than we can expect from the EU Spring Summit next week.