The EU is losing ground

On March 24, 2010, what all observers of European affairs have long known will be written in stone: the EU failed to attain the targets for economic growth, efficiency, and modernization set ten years ago in Lisbon. Rather than becoming "the most dynamic economy in the world," the EU is losing ground.

The gap in per-capita income of the EU15 (the membership prior to the accession of mainly post-communist states in 2004) relative to the United States - taken as a reference in many targets - is unchanged at 30-40 percent, depending on the adjustment to purchasing power parity.