Investing in ‘pockets of excellence’ in periphery countries would help the EU address its lack of competitiveness

The outlook for several European economies has improved over the last year, following the deep recessions experienced across Europe during the financial crisis. Terence Tse and Mark Esposito write that while there has been some progress, the key problem in EU states is still a lack of competitiveness. They argue that promoting investment should be a key priority and that targeting productive areas of EU economies, including those in the periphery, would go some way toward solving the problem.