EUROPE lives in fear of decline. It is not just about the current economic woes – unemployment stuck at high levels in France and Germany and sluggish growth in many countries. But also the threat that China and India will take away ever more jobs. It is not hard to conjure up a bleak future of crumbling wealth and eroding social security.
Europe’s leaders have looked into this abyss and decided that the future lies in a sophisticated high-tech economy, in which ingenuity is more important than cheap labour. The aim is to slug it out with the US for global leadership at the frontiers of discovery.…
