Furthermore, the adoption of the European Services Directive by the European Parliament in 2006 will contribute to a level playing field in the services sector. This will foster competition in the services sector, which is needed given the lacking productivity performance. However, although these reforms are a step in the right direction, more reforms are needed to improve productivity growth in Europe.
Aging Europe is aging more than for instance the US and China. Let me give you some figures to illustrate this. Currently there are on average 23 retirees for every 100 workers in Europe, in 2050 this will be 48. In the same period, this so-called old-age dependency ratio will increase to 34 in the US, and to 39 in China 9 .