Monday, February 11, 2008

Europe’s positioning in the emerging order

Was listening to a rather interesting debate at Davos this year on Europe's position in the emerging world order. I personally find this line of argument that Europe in a steady period of decline rather tiresome- after all, if every country in the regional vicinity is clamouring to join the EU, come on, it cannot be that bad… However, what is rather important is for Europe to think about its relative positioning, given that the world is moving away from a Trans-atlantic centricity to a multi-polar world, each interest group's ability to influence global agenda will be determined by its relative value add.

Thinking about what Europe would bring to this order, I would look to what Europe does best as a start point. One idea that comes up is the high level of "social responsibility" displayed in Europe- think about putting the citizen (never mind it is just the European citizen) center-stage, think about democracy, liberal values, welfare state, people's needs etc. I think Europe could very credibly take an agenda setting leadership stance in issues pertaining to what would loosely be defined as "Social responsibility"- sort of defining the core around positioning the European brand.

The implications are not trivial- From Green technologies, Education, Healthcare, Corporate Governance, Infrastructure, Administration, Regulatory governance, the sectors this theme could cover are vast enough to sustain a very profitable economic and a leadership model for Europe.

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