Villainous progress

Poland has made the least progress among EU countries in adjusting its economy to the requirements of globalization, according to the authors of the Lisbon scorecard VII. The report is an evaluation and ranking of the competitiveness of EU economies, based on the goals of the EU's "Lisbon agenda" which aims to make the EU the most competitive market in the world.

Analysts from the London-based Centre for European Reform (CER) took into consideration factors such as innovation, funding for research and development (R&D), access to telecoms, utilities for business start-ups, employment, level of state aid, competition policy and social policy. Poland's economy is said to fare the worst in four categories out of twelve, earning it the title of "villain," owing to the meager amount of funds spent on R&D, limited access to the internet, too few incentives for entrepreneurs and a high level of unemployment.

The report said that after starting from a low point, Poland had made some limited progress in implementing reforms. "But the Polish government needs to move much faster if it is to prevent the country from falling further behind," the authors wrote.

Experts in Poland were generally unsurprised by the evaluation. "In order to improve competitiveness of the economy, we must break the barriers standing in the way of innovation. There should be closer cooperation between businesses and scientists, more public financing of R&D and better incentives for private venture capital. The second element is to increase the flexibility of the labor market and to decrease the tax wedge," said Janusz Kaczurba from the Polish Confederation of Private Employers (PKPP) Lewiatan.

The Netherlands and Denmark were designated the EU's top "heroes."