EU falling behind in creation of world-leading companies
Today BusinessEurope published its EU Reform Barometer 2019 – “Building an EU for European businesses to succeed globally”.
BusinessEurope President Pierre Gattaz said: “Europe retains many world leading firms but Europe’s performance in developing more of them is insufficient. The EU has created only 29 Unicorns since 2010 with market valuations of more than $1 Billion compared to 139 in the US and 81 in China.
We need a strong European Single Market from which European businesses can succeed globally. In particular, none of the largest companies by market value are currently EU owned, whilst Europe today is home to only 24% of the global economy’s most profitable firms, compared to 36% in the late 1990s.
We need a new political commitment to making our continent the best place to start and grow a business. We must better support our companies in their efforts to invest, innovate, create jobs and upgrade labour skills.”
There are increasing signs that the present recovery is slowing. But rather than using what could be the autumn sunshine of the economic cycle to fix the roof of our economies, our Reform Barometer shows that governments have failed to step up their reform efforts. Our members suggest that only 20% of essential economic reforms agreed with the EU are being properly implemented.
Key report findings include:
- Despite growing at around 2% in 2018 and creating 1 million jobs, for the 7th year in the last 10, EU growth was lower than the US.
- Only 20% of Country Specific Reform recommendations have been assessed as satisfactorily implemented by our Member Federations.
- The EU has created only 29 Unicorns (new firms with market valuations of more than $1 Billion) since 2010, compared to 139 in the US and 81 in China.
Please find here a link to our EU Reform Barometer 2019 and our message to the European Council