03/03/2006 1:57:16 pm
The Threat From Economic Nationalism. French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin has labelled his policy "economic patriotism". Recent actions taken by the French government include the state stopping foreigners to invest in French companies. But the protectionism of course goes further, from barriers to the labour market for other Europeans to traditional standpoints such as subsidies to agriculture and limits on trade.

The EU Commission Preident José Manuel Barroso has criticised what he referred to as "economic nationalism". Mario Monti pointed out in the FT that the doctrine of economic nationalism threatens both the single market and the euro. And indeed he is right; that policy not only stops the single market from being completed - in services, for example - but also the existing freedoms.

The increase in protectionism in Europe is very worrying. Trying to save a failed anti-social model by having more of the same and shutting out the world would be a disaster. All the countries that do succeed in the world of today do the opposite: openness, small state, market economy. Why should Europe walk the same path as France, a country that failed to such an extent that there were riots for weeks recently?