ABSTRACT
Despite the recent change of government, Britain remains the European country least likely to endorse the high-skill, high-value-added model for the future of an integrated Europe. The notion of competitive advantage based on productivity and skill may be an ideal-type model to which no individual country conforms, let alone the European Union as a whole. Nevertheless, most European governments at least aspire to these goals, accepting that Europe can compete effectively in world markets only if it eschews the temptation of trying to undercut other European countries and Third World countries on the basis of low wages.
