Actually, euro area GDP per capita growth was approximately 5% during the 1960s and 1970s, around 2% from 1980 to the mid 1990s and has been 1.7% on average since the mid 1990s.
In contrast, in the US GDP per capita growth was around 3% from 1960 to 1980, 2% during the 1980s up until the mid 1990s, and 2.2% in the recent period 1995-2004.