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First Challenges identified

The big debate has finally begun around the theme of regional identities and struggles and the first conversations identifying the key challenges have begun to take place in small intimate groups, discussion panels and in the big townhall debate.

The first day of the 2006 Annual Meeting was dedicated to identify the key challenges for each of the major themes of this year's event.

With regards to regional identities and struggles , the main challenges identified, with potential global impact, that face the five major world regions over the coming 12-18 months were:

1. Institution and Governance:  Pushing through the reform agenda, democratization, transparency and building a sense of regional identity and community.  The new “conservative” wave of political leadership. 
2. Security: Taming social unrest through integration, militarization of rouge states and the development of a new breed of terrorism
3. Economics: The long oil boom and the repercussion on global economy. The winners and the loosers, Market reforms
4. Development Struggle: new models of the welfare state for the 21^st century, reform of the labour market and changing balance of demographic population of nations ( local vs immigrants),

Key regional questions that need to be addresssed in the next 12-18 months the most pressing ones identified were:

In terms of k

1. Europe:  How can the European Union clearly define the region’s priorities to ensure that the European Union can work.  Solving the key governance and leadership issue are key to ensuring the ecomomic development of the region in face of a european identity crises

2. Middle East: How can governments in the middle east ensure that their elections are not simply “window dressing” exercises benefiting simply national elites?  How can the long oil boom ensure regional development and stabilty. 

3. Latin America: How can, or will, the new regional political alliances arising from the coming to power of conservative goverments make sure that the market the reforms accomplished thus far are continued?

4. Africa: How can african governments keep the reform agenda moving forward to ensure good public and corporate governance practices become wide spread and they create the structures necessary for strong intra-regional trade aimed at  economic development.

The real question however is what are the mechanisms for change that each region needs to adopt  in order to provide concrete solutions to the key challenges identified?  Are interntational bodies or umbrella organisations going to be able to provide the answers or are the transformations needed only able to be done at a local level?   

Welcome to Regional Struggles Action Group

Welcome to the World Economic Forum Action Group Blog. This action group, formed in our Annual Meeting 2006 focuses on Regional Identities and Struggles. The aim of the Action Group  is to address how the business community can positively impact the regional economic growth and prosperity of Europe, Asia, Latin America, Middle East and Africa. Topics we hope to discuss (and disagree on) are: - Labor movements, regional immigration, economic and social integration - Social reform: combatting poverty and disease - National identity and religious struggles - New regional balance and emerging hotspots - Emergence, or not, of new leadership So, now it's time to introduce ourselves: two Mediterranean inquisitive minds (an Italian and a Lebanese) who usually write and think in less dry terms ( it's really late right now!!!!!) who will try to navigate you through the thousands of different sessions where the best minds will try providing real answers to serious questions! Jokes aside, we will try to be faithful reporters on the discussions we witness in Davos, on the one side, and critical analyzers on the other. We are hoping to keep you informed and entertained- and we promise to report the fashion faux-pas of the day. Hope you do the same! Thea Chiesa and Diana El-Azar (of course, you knew we were women from all our exclamation marks!)

German chancellor Angela Merkel to open Annual Meeting 2006

It's official. Germany's Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel will give the opening plenary speech at the upcoming Annual Meeting in Davos. The summit this year will focus on the need for a creative approach to global challenges under the umbrella theme 'The Creative Imperative'.

Said Dr Merkel: "We need to reinforce the feeling that global challenges can be tackled successfully. Germany will champion pragmatic and innovative solutions. In this context this year's Annual Meeting will provide an excellent platform for discussions."

Ladies and gentlemen, meet Ukraine

After President Yushchenko spoke at the Annual Meeting in Davos (session summary), the Forum agreed to organize an event in Ukraine. This cosy affair in mid-June is primarily reserved for partners and is a gesture of support for Yushchenko during his first year as the head of his country.

For business, it will be an occasion for Ukrainian and foreign executives to hobnob and size up potential opportunities.

We'd like to publish an interview with Mr Yushchenko in early June to find out what he hopes to achieve during the meeting and for Ukraine in general. The Forum's Europe team kindly agreed to help set this up so cross your fingers.

Passengers traffic over the next 20 years between Europe and China will have extreme growth

I just discovered Randy's blog, the blog of Boeing's VP of marketing who shares with us his predictions on the evolution of passengers traffic over the next 20 years between Europe and China. Isn't it amazing ?

2003

2023

The economic consequences of such an increase both in China and Europe are still difficult to understand, but a boom of tourism is already starting to happen.

The new face of Ukraine

« We welcome a true hero », said Executive chairman of the World Economic Forum Klaus Schwab, introducing Victor Yushchenko, the new President of Ukraine.

The documentary/movie broadcasted before he began his speech was to prove it. From electoral fraud to the victory of Yushchenko, from the mobilization of the Ukrainians to their tears of joy, it reminded the steps of a peaceful and democratic revolution embodied by Yushchenko.

With the “Orange revolution”, a new Ukraine has emerged was to repeat Ukraine President. Changes are on the way for “a free European Ukraine” with “European values”.

In a moving speech, he developed his hopes and plans for his country : its necessary transition to democracy that hardly began and its new dimension as a country that has a role to play in Europe. With an objective : achieving full membership in the EU. “We support a prosperous and democratic Ukraine in a strong and prosperous Europe”, said Yushchenko without a word for the Russian neighbour.

As he knows prosperity goes hand in hand with business, Yushchenko ended his speech inviting the audience to go to Ukraine to show support and launch a new dynamics (a “mini-forum” will probably be held in Kiev next summer where Statesmen and entrepreneurs will get the chance to meet).

His words were greeted with a standing ovation. This is a promising start, isn’t it ?

-- Benoit Petit

Germany is doing well, thank you (oh, yes, we can help too…)

After Jacques Chirac, Tony Blair, Bill Clinton and other political leaders, Gerhard Schroëder, Federal Chancellor of Germany, delivered his own "special message" before the audience of Davos (January 28, 2005) ; a message that indeed sounded different.

Of course, the proposals made by French President Jacques Chirac and British Prime Minister Tony Blair have been mentioned (they make the buzz here in Davos). Of course, the aid given by Germany to help Asia after the Tsunami has been reminded.

Germany, as we know, feels deeply concerned with the fight against poverty and the need to sustain development. All those subjects have been dealt with here in Davos – both by Federal Chancellor and moderator Daniel Vasella, Novartis chairman. But only briefly during a short introduction.

Today, Schroëder's speech was mostly about Germany : its growth, its market share, its university system (that offers opportunities), its reforms needed, the drug industry, its position on Iraq and even the need for more day nurseries in Germany !

These, of course, are interesting topics. But, apparently, not interesting enough to make the audience of the WEF ask any question after the speech…

-- Benoit Petit

A Step Toward Change

The European Economic Summit is now over but what's left from a summit that drew together more than 600 people?

What did all those business leaders and over 20 heads of state and government achieve during the three day event?

When walking down the corridors of the conference centre there was a palpable buzz of swapping ideas, opinions, plans - and not just business cards! "Let's do it" reverberated around the meeting rooms.

But still the question - which I raised earlier in this blog - remains: what are the results of this Summit in Warsaw?

I was sitting in a session entitled Building a Europe for Business, when one business man stood up, took the microphone and asked the respected panellists this very question.

The answer he got made a lot of sense:

"This Summit serves as a platform, a catalyst, a stimulator in a positive sense," was the answer George Mallinckrodt gave. He is the president of Schroders.

And when you look at the recommendations that were put forward in this session as a first step towards Building a Europe for Business, what he said makes sense.

On this issue, Loic Le Meur, an entrepreneur and very special blogger here at the Forum!, put forward a laundry list of items that if acted upon, could have a significant impact.

Read his points in full noted in the session summary.

What I read there are things that I don't have to wait for politicians or people with big purses to do. For instance, the point "Celebrate successes; do not condemn failures" is something we ALL can do.

And should do! It's amazing what a smile, positive attitude and encouragement of others can do to someone's day or life.

Do you think Europe lacks a culture of encouraging others? Of entrepreneurship? Do you think Europeans don't take enough risks? Entrepreneurship is a pretty interesting topic since it reflects our cultures. Would you start your own business venture?

Parday On!

Are you holing a party tonight to celebrate the entry of 10 countries into the European Union?

Write here where and when you'll be partying on down!

Hopefully we can get as many people onto the streets of Warsaw, Riga, Vilnius, Tallinn - in fact all cities and towns around Europe - to CELEBRATE!

Russia out in the cold?

"We're not worried about EU enlargement" was the message a top aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered to European leaders here at the European Economic Summit in Warsaw.

If you are Russian, would you agree? I'm not Russian, I've never been there and I'm curious to learn their perspective on enlargement.

You see, 8 of the 10 new EU members were former Soviet Republics and communist countries - now they're taking a BIG step towards Western Europe, Nato and the US. Is Moscow irritated? Quaking in its boots?

“Our only concern about the expansion of the European Union is that it should not result in the emergence on its territory of second grade citizens deprived of many rights and freedoms on the basis of their ethnicity,” is what Sergei Yastrzhembsky, an aide to Putin, said.

“Russia regards the expansion of the European Union as a good thing, positive for Russia,” he declared. ”Indeed, this process leads to the expansion of the zone of stability and promotes the development of democracy and the adoption of European legal standards in the states immediately bordering Russia.” (Read the full session summary)

One Polish woman told me that Russia is seriously concerned.

"Their sphere of influence is all of sudden being taken away from them. In their mind, they would like to have the good old days back."

And then there's question of Nato. "The Polish buffer is disappearing, and now Nato troops can come right up to the border with Russia," she said.

But these "buffer states" should be happy that they're no longer sandwiched between opposing systems, or world powers.

If you're from an accession state or Russia, are you happy about what's going to happen on 1 May?

The BBC Show on Migration from Accession countries and Low European Fertility Rates

by Martin Varsavsky, who kindly sent me his report on that session by email. Thank you Martin !

Very interesting session TV show on Migration.  The session was attended by various ministers and presidents from Europe and it was both a session with a moderator, and a TV show for the BBC channel.  Highlights of this session which blog readers can view on BBC this weekend:
 
Firstly we learned that as opposed to what British and German tabloids are saying, migration from accession countries will be minor.  Population experts told us that presently there are 800,000 people from accession countries living in the European Union out of 370 million and that the new EU will have around 450 million but we should only expect around 2 million people to migrate from accession countries to the rest of the EU.
 
Secondly we learned that rather than fearing migration it is time we start fearing population extinction....yes Malthusians get this, extinction and that is because regardless of the Italian minister´s comments that Itaaaaleeans like making babies....they don´t, and neither do the Germans, or Spaniards, or everyone else in the EU to the tune of 2.1 babies per couple that is needed to keep population levels as they are.
 
So why is it that we don´t have babies in Europe?  Many, many theories circulated in the session.  I will report on some and leave my own theory as a last comment.  Here´s a list.
 
-because men don´t help working women raising them.
 
-because there´s not enough child care, in France for example, where there is, there´s seems to be a higher fertility rate.
 
-because many couples choose what in China they take by force, the one child policy.
 
-because the welfare state has secured pensions and people used to raise children as genetic insurance for retirement.
 
-because as opposed to what happens in America Europeans have little hope about the future and they don´t want to raise children into a hopeless world or in other words that there´s a correlation between having a positive spirit and wanting to have children.
 
Now before giving my theory let me ask blog readers that this may be a good time to stop and comment on your own theory.
 
Here´s mine.
 
I think that there´s something wrong about democracy and children.  I believe that children have been left out of the democratic process and as a result democracies tend to produce too many benefits for old people, who vote, and few for children, who don´t vote.  So here´s my solution, I would lower voting age to 12 years of age.  I think it would do wonders for the democratic process by getting children to become interested at an early age in their own destiny.  And of course they would be influenced by their parents but so what?  I believe that either children should be allowed to vote or that parents should be custodians of their children´s votes until children reach voting age.  In this way much many more resources of society would shift to programs that benefit the very young and people who have children would feel the added responsibility of voting for programs that help them.  And most likely this policy would lead to a more children friendly society and to people having more children.
 
Now what´s your theory and solution?

European Foreign Policy: Uniting through One Voice

Heard during the session about the European Foreign Policy:

Vaira Vike-Freiberga, President of Latvia

"We do have a Foreign Policy in Europe or our Country would not have joined it"

Bernard Guetta, Editorialist, L'Express, France Inter, France

"We will see European parties emerge, European Left, European Right, European Greens, etc"

"Europe will become a Country, we just do not know yet when"

Having seen how the EU and its members behaved after 9/11th, the War in Irak or Madrid, do you think we have a European Foreign Policy ?

How do you explain Europe to your Children ?

I really liked the question of Klaus Schwab during the second Plenary session today, about The Shape of the New European Union. Klaus Schwab is the Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum.

Question: -How do you explain what Europe is in one sentence to your Children ? My answer after World War Two was easy, "Peace"-

Wojciech J. Kostrzewa, President and CEO, BRE Bank, Poland: Europa is the freedom of traveling and using the same Currency
Dimitrij Rupel, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Slovenia: Europe is about diversity but diversity is not a very good "glue".
Laurens Jan Brinkhorst, Minister of Economic Affairs of the Netherlands : Freedom, Excellence and Solidarity
Georgi Parvanov, President of Bulgaria: it will not be difficult to explain to my sons what is Europe because our children have no complexes heritated from the past, they do not use the rear view window. They are much ahead of us, they have their own definition
Rafael del Pino, Chairman, Ferrovial, Spain: Europe is the place where we can success but it is not quite there yet
Aleksander Kwasniewski, President of Poland: Peace and Solidarity

Here is mine: a dream without enough definition, without a Face, and without proper execution that may come true when you are adults (my boys are 8, 6 and 3 years old).

What is yours ?

Do we need a President of Europe ?

Here is a question I asked in the afternoon Plenary session today about The Shape of the New European Union.

Dimitrij Rupel, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Slovenia, shared with us his ideas of an European dream compared to what was the American Dream in the past:

The Americans was a dream for individuals coming to America to fulfill their dreams of individual success. The initial European dream of Jean Monnet and Robert Schuman was the United States of Europe. Today the Accessing Countries join, the dream changed.

The European dream is a concept that can attract not only the 15, the 10 new ones but also many more. The EU is not an exclusive club. Dimitrij Rupel developed his concept of this new dream of a large multi-cultural, open Europe.

Here was my question to Dimitrij Rupel:

"I share your dreams about Europe, being a French Entrepreneur, but I feel most citizens don't. I will put it in an even stronger way, most of them do not really care about Europe, they feel it has no voice, it does not mean enough to them, and you can see that in European elections citizens participation.

I am surprised nobody on the panel talked about a President of Europe, even if it is not for tomorrow. I actually think we need one, now. We need a Face for Europe, a person that is this vision, that takes it to Citizens, so that they feel concerned and share it.

There is no company without a face, a CEO. There is no Country without a President. Europe has no face until we have a directly elected President of Europe."

Do you think also we need a European President now ?

The Lisbon Agenda: how will the New Europe score vis à vis the Old Europe ?

Here are my notes and they are not comprehensive of course.

We had a great panel today:

Augusto Lopez-Carlos, Chief Economist and Director, Global Competitiveness Programme, World Economic Forum
Laurens Jan Brinkhorst, Minister of Economic Affairs of the Netherlands
Leszek Balcerowicz, Governor of the National Bank of Poland
Elizabeth Padmore, Partner and Director, Policy and Corporate Affairs, Accenture
Leif Pagrotsky, Minister for Trade and Industry of Sweden

"The Lisbon agenda: make Europe the most competitive and dynamic economy in the world by 2010"

When the Lisbon agenda was launched, the agenda was very ambitious but what could not have been foreseen is that global economy was about to enter a global recession so fiscal problems, instability in growth became the short term agenda.

In 2004, we are bringing in a set of countries that have delivered incredible results in the last 15 years. Could Estonia and the other accessing countries play a major role in European growth ?

Laurens Jan Brinkhorst, Minister of Economic Affairs of the Netherlands

Can Europe regain competitiveness ?

-It has to be taken into account that inside Europe there is enormous amount of diversity in the 15 and in the 10, these countries are very different. The Nordic region is leading the way in terms of economic results, Sweden is higher than the USA itself in many aspects. You just can't import the US model in Europe even though that is what the americans often tell us, "just do like we did".
-Ireland had incredible results
-the biggest problem is Germany and France with their unemployment and poor growth rates.
-Italy slides backwards in unemployment

How to get the group as a whole going ?
Some of the new countries do extremely better than Old Europe in many aspects. The dynamism of these countries with the young population can help us. They have younger political leaders and a highest percentage of entrepreneurs willing to change the situation, they are used to change.

Leszek Balcerowicz, Governor of the National Bank of Poland

How can we pretend to have a knowledge based Economy without high University budgets ?

Elizabeth Padmore, Partner and Director, Policy and Corporate Affairs, Accenture

Estonia is by far ahead of all countries in e-government.

The countries joining the EU are hugely vibrant and innovative and entrepreneurial, they may act as a wake up call. They will issue a challenge to the old members.

We do not invest enough in education in all European countries, (Educational budgets represent 2% of GDP in the EU versus 3% in the US). 400 000 researchers trained in Europe have chosen to go to the US at this exact moment and this is a very important issue, brain drain.

Leif Pagrotsky, Minister for Trade and Industry of Sweden

New members will contribute a lot.

-the ten new members are used to change, imagine the pace of change in the last 15 years they have been through and compare it to the change in our Countries.
The ability to live through change is a major sign of creativity and dynamism.
-the new Countries have younger politicians and business managers, they are more likely to be early adopters of new ways of thinking and doing things
-the level of education is very high and knowledge is the key currency or even the single currency of the world

For the first time we have a group of countries with a level of education far above economic development. In many developing Countries outside of the EU, these countries have to make the educational basis first -here they do not have to- which gives them an incredible advantage and that is the reason they can change so fast. The good news is that this high level of education can also be maintained easily.

We must avoid having rigid universities and have competition between universities and research. I have always been in favor of competition. I don't see the new members as competitors but as people who will bring more competitivy and growth in the future. We should see enlargment as a vitamin injection to our EU affairs.

Leszek Balcerowicz, Governor of the National Bank of Poland

How can we improve the entrepreneurial spirit in Europe ? It is absolutely key to the success of Europe. We should make the process of creating a company very easy and fast. In italy for example, it takes a lot of time and efforts to create a company. Entrepreneurial spirit is absolutely key to Europe's success.

Elizabeth Padmore, Partner and Director, Policy and Corporate Affairs, Accenture, on Entrepreneurship.

Do we reward intelligent failure ? Elizabeth Padmore took the example of an entrepreneur failing a company and explained that a failure can be excellent in an entrepreneur profile: "if somebody has not failed then he has not tried hard enough". Then Elizabeth Padmore explained how her thirteen years old kid tried to start a company directly on the Internet by opening a resellers account in an Internet site, without telling her. "Kids are entrepreneurs but we beat them out, we push them against boundaries, they lose their entrepreneurial spirit as they grow up".

Let me talk about a survey we made amongst 500 leaders around the world. One incredible result is that when you ask all these leaders what country is leading the World in terms of entrepreneurship the huge majority of them answer the USA. Almost all Europeans answered "the USA" but what is even more interesting is that all Americans answered USA too. They have confidence and awareness about their leadership. People don't follow pessimists, would you invest in a CEO that has no confidence in himself ? We should restore optimism in European leaders and Entrepreneurs minds.

Leif Pagrotsky, Minister for Trade and Industry of Sweden was asked if the Swedish model was exportable.

Augusto Lopez-Carlos asked how can they have such high tax rates ?

Leif Pagrotsky answered that Nordic countries are a group of their own.

Everybody focus on the disadvantages of high tax rates. Growth means change. In every country and individual there is resistance to change. If you create a level of security and education (like give people the possibility of preparing for a year for a new job for example), people will actually be ready to take risks and be ready for change. Do secure people dare more ?

We have the financial ressources to have an ambitious education. Give access to computers to everybody and that keeps productivity high. We do not experience any resistance for modernization from the trade unions even if modernization means often jobs disappearing, the trade unions understand other jobs are created in the sectors of the future. Every body is in favor of these changes.

There are several ways to achieve flexibility. Our nordic model works for us but it may not work for other Countries.

About the high taxes now. We are the first ones accountable for how we spend the public money. As long as people feel we spend it right, people accept to pay it. The public money should go to innovation and education. Some Countries are spending it too much on protecting people.

"Protecting the past is a higher priority than preparing the future" is my conclusion to all my years working with the EU. This is the chance of the new countries, they have young leaders in politics who understand they should work for the future, not the past, they only look forward. Many Old Europe countries politicians spend their time trying to fix past problems and forget about the future.

Now, some comments on my side.

I have been impressed by Leif Pagrotsky's speech about investing in the future. I would focus on one key result Sweden achieved, the Internet penetration in the Country shows how much people are educated with it and ready for this part of the future.

I also cannot help thinking how France is again totally out of these debates. Very few political Leaders were in Davos this year, non are at the European Economic Summit to my knowledge, very few French business Leaders are here. I feel bad about France for that reason, how can there be such a low interest in getting part in these talks ? I am listening carefully to other EU Countries leaders and must say I am very impressed.

I had several discussions with Participants about France and Germany pretending to be the core two players of the EU and what I feel more and more is that they are the Leaders of protecting the past when I hear results achieved by Sweden, Ireland, Estonia and the growth rate in the Accessing Countries as a whole. More important than that is the "hunger to succeed" we can feel in these countries.

What do you think about it ?

Optimists Welcome

"You have to be an optimist these days in Europe," was the consensus reached among political, business and society leaders speaking at the opening session of the European Economic Summit in Warsaw. "If we do not have hope," said Portugal's president Jorge Sampaio, "we will be overwhelmed by concerns."

This is what I wrote for the World Economic Forum's website (http://www.weforum.org). (read the session in full)

And there's a laundry list of concerns, let me tell you:

The Economy:
1. Europe has got to implement reforms and become more competitive. Antony Burgmans from Unilever said that Europe needs to work harder to achieve a "vibrant economy" and warned that Europe will lose its influence if it doesn't. But it already is.

The US has been able to get its way on several occasions in global trade negotiations thanks to EU states competing against each other! Is this the way forward? Surely "community" and "union" are the operative words here?

Politics:
2. The power in the punch Europe can pack is also sinking on the international stage. Portugal's President Jorge Sampaio told hundreds of people at the meeting that "we failed in the Middle East, we failed dramatically in having a common approach in Iraq" and more must be done to ensure Europe speaks with one voice.
Do you think Brussels is doing a good job of standing up and being counted on the world stage? But how can Europe act together? Take the case of Iraq: Poland, Spain, Italy and Britain were staunch supporters of Washington - a fact that irritated the hell out of French President Chirac heeheehee.

Democracy:
It was refreshing to hear the President of Portugal talk about the EU's democratic deficit. Apparently more than 40% of a European country's legislation is handed down from Brussels - from people we don't know, haven't elected and aren't in any way accountable to us. Is this the Europe we really want? And let's not kid ourselves here, the red tape and bureacracy is only going to get longer.

So what to do?

You guessed it, remain optimistic.

Antony Burgmans seemed to get it right: he urged people to get out and vote in the next EU parliamentary elections, and watch closely the debate on the new EU constitution. That view was seconded by Simon Wilson from the Social Platform who said the EU should be more inclusive.

Send me your thoughts on what Europeans are really worrying about! Also, ask questions that I'll pass on to the top business and political leaders here in Warsaw - and I'll try to get the direct answers back to you. No promises.... those dudes surrounding the hot shots talking into their collars can be a slight barrier...

The future of business in Europe

Extremely interesting session this morning where I had both a speaker and a rapporteur role for the Plenary session on Friday "Building europe for Business".

Here are some first quick notes I took, I am trying to write some of what we discussed, not my personal ideas even though they are quite similar to the below ideas.

Some issues

-The EU may miss its objective of being one of the most competitive and dynamic part of the world by 2010
-The 15 current members joined by the 10 new ones in a few days are behind the US in terms of R&D and innovation, creating an information society and encouraging entrepreneurship in Europe

Some good news

-Nordic EU members are actually ahead of the USA in many different aspects of their development
-Europe at large is ahead in sustainable development, social protection and Telecom
-The 10 accessing countries are used to change, and change fast "We should see enlargment as a vitamin injection to our EU affairs" Leif Pagrotsky, Minister for Trade and Industry of Sweden

We live an historic moment with the 10 countries joining the EU, 74 million more people will join but only contributing to the GDP by 5% and with a labor cost of only 1/5th of the 15 other members and other key advantages, the opportunities of growth for these countries (which is above other members' growth) and for EU as a whole are incredible.

Some first solutions

Decrease EU and Countries Regulations, Bureaucracy and Taxation,
-adapt the Entrepreneur friendly fiscal framework of the accessing countries to the 15 members as much as possible, not the opposite which would mean transposing the slow moving, business-enemy environment of some of the 15 to the 10. In Austria, for every Euro net to bring home for a person out of their job, the cost is 4 euros for the company.
-make it easy to create a company, make a European company structure a reality, get results in European patent and branding.

Entrepreneurship
-gather best local european experiences in terms of entrepreneurship and best business practices in the EU and share them
-give access to people superior education, integrate much more entrepreneurship and business awareness lessons to educational programs, teach entrepreneurship to schools
-improve the image of Entrepreneurship in Europe by better explaining the key role they play (like contribution to jobs creation and growth). People, media and politicians should better understand Entrepreneurs. Compared to the USA, their image is totally different. If they fail, they are considered as losers. If they succeed, they do not get the same respect for what they have done, the jobs they created and the value they added to Society by taking risks as in the USA where many of them are even considered as heroes
-acceptance of risks. Risk should become more desirable economically and socially, Europe is too much living in comfort to a point that its growth, innovation and entrepreneurship are in danger
-the 10 countries that join the EU have a different agenda than the others. Poland has about 20% unemployment, the only option is "hunger to succeed" and entrepreneurs are becoming very active because "this is the only way to go". We should communicate and transfer some of that hunger to succeed, take risks and build businesses to "Old Europe" that is seen as "being comfortable" with high social protection and low working hours (France's 35 hours a week were mentioned many times by Participants for example)". "Being comfortable is impossible and illusive". There was a general consensus around the fact that we should take more risks and get out a bit of our current protection to innovate and create, or the EU will just lose ground against the US of course but more important against countries like China and India. The ideal if leisure and less working time (France's 35 hours a week law) are not sustainable to make the EU competitive. Too much of a comfortable life makes people too risk averse (young people in France taking advantages of the welfare state to take one year off their jobs and take holidays happened frequently when the Internet bubble burst).
-promote the role of early stage investments in young companies, the role of business angels, help young companies get initial financing

Gather best practices and create centers of excellence
-create centers of excellence, and especially create a Silicon Valley of Europe. There must be centers of excellence fostering innovation and entrepreneurship. To get to that result, mobility of EU citizens should be improved by promoting it, making it easy for people to move from one country to another (ensuring portability of pensions for example, ease the way people can get hired anywhere in Europe and what companies have to do to hire EU citizens).

Some examples of Europeans successes that may be made centers of Excellence:

-Telecom in Nordic Region,
-London as a Global Financial hub contributes in an increase of 31 B euros in European GDP
-Retail and distribution expertise in the UK (Tesco), France (Promodes, Auchan), Belgium (Delhaize), Ikea (Sweden) and El Corte Ingles (Spain)
-Fast paced Ireland transformation
-Nano technology R&D (Germany, Hungary) - just heard it, need to get more details-
-Pau Broadband country that has 100Mbps of bandwidth to every home with fiber connections,
-Italy and France for Design and Fashion, Luxury Sector, egovernment in Estonia.

Education
-Education and training need reform. European students are some of the best educated in the world, but face obstacles in becoming "stars" or innovators. Lifelong education is the way forward and should be supported by government and companies. Accessibility is a key issue.
-make businesses contribute more to society by building strong links with Universities and finance them, one of the key reason of success of Silicon Valley. Many companies there were created by students in Stanford and Berkeley, not only Google.
-increase competition between Universities (for example have the students rank their teachers)

Information Society
-focus on egovernance and make it a top agenda for Governments, focusing on how to implement by also gathering the best practices (there is big diversity in implementation in the EU, you can get a new passport in Poland on the Internet in three days where it may take three weeks with a lot of administrative work in other countries for example).
--Technology and Internet access should be available to everyone, everywhere.

The E-Estonia case:
-paperless internet platform used by Ministers that saves 200 000 EUR per year in paper and copying costs
-e-voting option for 2005
-"I decide today" e-society: Ministries upload all their draft bills and amendments allowing people to review, comment and suggest amendments. 5% of all ideas are used as amendments to bills.
-Ecitizen: 60% of the population are everyday Internet users, 71% of home computers connected to the Internet with a majority with broadband access. Guaranteed Internet access to each of Estonian citizens, 51 free Public Internet Access per 100 000 people in 2003 and 200 areas with high-speed wireless.

-Europe must invest more in R&D and innovation. This will stem today's brain drain. Also, better coordination is needed between business, the market, universities and research institutes. 3000 French scientists went on strike in France recently.

The room concluded also by the fact that this challenge cannot be taken by only one group in society, it is a multi-stakeholders challenge involving Governments, Business, Research, Education and other groups. Building a business-friendly Europe depends less on the "what" than the "how". Equally important is measurability of success. Said clearly: "You cannot manage what you cannot measure".

What do you think are other solutions for building a more business friendly Europe ? There is of course much we could not cover in only a hour and a half.

Help me get more ideas and concrete actions to the Plenary session on Friday !

The official summary of the session is Posted by Loïc Le Meur on April 28, 2004 at 01:25 PM in Europe, The future of business in Europe | Permalink | Comments (8) | TrackBack (1)

"As soon as Poland joins the European Union, many young people are going to leave and go to Western Europe to look for work," my taxi driver told me as we drove into the centre of Warsaw.

The possible mass migration of East Europeans to the West when 10 new countries join the EU on 1 May has many worried in present EU countries that their jobs and way of life are under threat.

But is this feared flight of people really going to happen? I don't think so. The skilled people who want to move probably have already. And for those contemplating it, they shouldn't deceive themselves that visas and the piles of paperwork (surely the bane of any migrant) are going to disappear.

And what's in the Western Europe that people like my taxi driver could want? Higher salaries sure, but also higher prices and taxes.

A look around me here in Warsaw, and the trendy youngsters of the Polish capital hardly look like they're busy packing their bags. I'll be interested to learn what their hopes and concerns are.

I feel really safe here.
No need for the old folks to worry about their daughter fresh in the capital city of a former Communist country.
I'm in Warsaw, Poland: the land that will become the bridge to... now how did Donald Rumsfeld so eloquently put it? ah yes, "Old Europe" on May 1.
Poland is hosting the World Economic Forum's European Economic Summit that comes just days before Poland - along with 9 other states - joins the European Union.
So there's an impressive display of Polish muscle here to protect all the hot shots coming to take part. What all these heads of states, presidents, ministers of this and that will really achieve is to be seen (no doubt if anything meaty happens you'll read it here first.) Actually, EU Enlargement might be the theme of the conference, but I think Iraq could still land up grabbing the headlines.
What is it about Iraq and the troubles there? So much military might and still no security. Is it the same on a micro level here in Warsaw? I hope not. I wanna sleep good tonight. Better call home......

EU: Hopes & Concerns

"As soon as Poland joins the European Union, many young people are going to leave and go to Western Europe to look for work," my taxi driver told me as we drove into the centre of Warsaw.

The possible mass migration of East Europeans to the West when 10 new countries join the EU on 1 May has many worried in present EU countries that their jobs and way of life are under threat.

But is this feared flight of people really going to happen? I don't think so. The skilled people who want to move probably have already. And for those contemplating it, they shouldn't deceive themselves that visas and the piles of paperwork (surely the bane of any migrant) are going to disappear.

And what's in the Western Europe that people like my taxi driver could want? Higher salaries sure, but also higher prices and taxes.

A look around me here in Warsaw, and the trendy youngsters of the Polish capital hardly look like they're busy packing their bags. I'll be interested to learn what their hopes and concerns are.

Who's Safe?

I feel really safe here.
No need for the old folks to worry about their daughter fresh in the capital city of a former Communist country.
I'm in Warsaw, Poland: the land that will become the bridge to... now how did Donald Rumsfeld so eloquently put it? ah yes, "Old Europe" on May 1.
Poland is hosting the World Economic Forum's European Economic Summit that comes just days before Poland - along with 9 other states - joins the European Union.
So there's an impressive display of Polish muscle here to protect all the hot shots coming to take part. What all these heads of states, presidents, ministers of this and that will really achieve is to be seen (no doubt if anything meaty happens you'll read it here first.) Actually, EU Enlargement might be the theme of the conference, but I think Iraq could still land up grabbing the headlines.
What is it about Iraq and the troubles there? So much military might and still no security. Is it the same on a micro level here in Warsaw? I hope not. I wanna sleep good tonight. Better call home......