European Business: Round Table presses EU to clear obstacles to competition
THREE charts produced by European business leaders graphically illustrate the widening gap between the competitiveness of EU companies and the rest of the industrialised world.
The European Round Table, comprising the heads of 40 leading companies such as BP, Fiat and Daimler-Benz, has used cost differentials covering energy, telecommunications, capital and taxation to back its appeal to the European Commission to push industrial issues higher up the EU agenda.
A paper tabled by the group before the summit of EU leaders in Essen, Germany, next month comprises a lengthy shopping list of what business leaders want in order to improve competitiveness. The paper is heavily peppered with what the round tablers feel are penalties imposed on them by EU bureaucracy, national inertia, short-sightedness and obstruction.
Energy costs in Europe are estimated to be at least 30pc above American levels (British companies have their own grouse about differentials inside the EU). Tax levels account for 46pc of gross domestic product in Europe compared with 31pc in America and 34pc in Japan.
The differentials in the cost of capital are even greater and while the average costs of employing workers are higher in Europe, the take home pay of employees is lower because of the tax burden.
The thrust of the plea is the familiar theme that the EU and its policies do not favour wealth creation.
