18/11/2004 1:49:14 pm
Why is the Handbrake on? There is a very good metaphor in a letter to the editor in today′s Financial Times. It regards the impossibility of increasing economic growth in Europe while keeping the European social model - the aim of the Lisbon process. Benjamin North from the Faculty of Economics and Politics at the University of Cambridge points out that saying that "Europe can thrive at its own pace" is like saying "a car travelling down a motorway with its handbrake on will arrive in its own time". And the conclusion, according to North, would be that "we in Europe like to have the handbrake on and will focus on improving speed in other ways".