Europe on the Rise

John Bruton

Washington Post, Saturday, February 25, 2006; page A16

Fareed Zakaria based his gloomy Feb. 14 op-ed column, "The Decline and Fall of Europe," on a selective reading of a recent report from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Mr. Zakaria took no account of the recent enlargement of the European Union when looking at the numbers. On May 1, 2004, 10 countries joined the European Union, adding 80 million people to the existing 370 million -- a 20 percent increase in population but only a 5 percent increase in gross domestic product. Taken with the 1980s expansion to include Spain, Portugal and Greece, this is the equivalent of the United States integrating six Central American Free Trade Agreement countries after Mexico.

E.U. enlargement is a catalyst for prosperity. Poorer countries that have joined the European Union have displayed an amazing ability to catch up with existing members. Last year, the 10 newest members grew at twice the rate of the old E.U. 15. But this remains a long-term investment whose full returns will take time to be realized.

Contrary to what Mr. Zakaria asserted, difficult and unpopular reforms are being implemented. The OECD report commended the European Union for "its efforts to strengthen competition in the internal market" and praised it for cutting red tape, reforming unemployment benefits and loosening work time restrictions.

To say that Europe is badly lagging in research and innovation is true only to a point. Two-thirds of all research and development by U.S. companies abroad is done in Europe. The European Union leads the world in global satellite navigation, and it will be the home of the world's first nuclear fusion experimental reactor. Nordic E.U. countries are leading innovators, and Sweden, Finland, Germany and Denmark rank ahead of the United States in per capita public and business-sector spending on research and development. Without the European Union's global leadership after the Seattle debacle, there would be no World Trade Organization trade round to negotiate today.

As the OECD acknowledged, GDP is not the ultimate test of contentment, and the European Union outranks the United States in "alternative measures of well-being." Mr. Zakaria focused on the half-empty glass, but a larger E.U. glass is more than half full, and the level is rising.

JOHN BRUTON
Ambassador
Delegation of the European Commission to the United States
Washington