Diverging competitiveness developments in the euro area While pursuing the aforementioned structural reforms is essential to maintain the competitiveness of the euro area as a whole and to translate the opportunities brought about by globalisation into achievements, there is also a need to address deviating trends in competitiveness within the euro area.
What was originally a Community of six countries in Western Europe will become a Union of 25, spanning a geographic area that used to be divided by an iron curtain. Today we can watch some 450 million Europeans dismantling the barbed wire of political hatred and economic seclusion that had split the continent for more than half a century.