As its new legislators assemble following June’s European Parliament election, the EU is faced with major economic challenges. The European economy expanded at 2 to 3 per cent annually throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, but growth has never fully recovered from the 2008 financial crisis. While Europe continues to rank highly on broader measures of well-being, its growth has fallen well behind that of the US. Boosting growth is vital for Europe to deal with high levels of public debt, demands for higher spending on defence in the wake of Russia’s war on Ukraine, investment needed to curb emissions, and a rapidly ageing population.
Authors: John Springford, Associate Fellow; Sander Tordoir, Chief Economist; Lucas Resende Carvalho, Project Manager at the Bertelsmann Stiftung, Centre for European Reform.
This article is available on the Centre for European Reform website.
