§ Keith VazTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what forecasts he has received of the relative levels of economic output in the EU and the US in 2010. [186652]
§ Mr. MacShaneGDP per head in the EU has been persistently lower than that in the US in recent decades. This, allied with the significant demographic challenge that the EU will face in coming years, emphasises the need for significant structural reform if Europe is to close the gap with the US in output per capita.
The Government's February progress report on European economic reform and recent submission to Mr. Wim Kok's Lisbon Mid-Term Review Group, highlight these challenges and set out the Government thinking on how Europe can successfully rise to those challenges.
Copies of both Government papers are available in the Library of the House.