ABSTRACT
This chapter provides variety of economic issues in contemporary Europe, looking both at longer-term trends that present challenges to the European social-welfare state as well as the domestic and international aspects of the economic crisis that by 2016 has yet to fully pass. The World Economic Forum ranked Finland as the most competitive economy in Europe in its Europe 2020 Competitiveness Report, and it placed eighth among all countries in the world in its 2015 Global Competitiveness Report. Western European countries, starting in the 1950s, took the lead in eliminating barriers to cross-border economic activity. Germany is the second-largest trading nation in the world, and numerous countries, including Sweden, the Netherlands, Ireland, and Finland, have embraced globalization and developed high-tech sectors and export-oriented firms. One of the most interesting developments occurred in Great Britain, where, after nearly two decades (1979–1997) of rule by the Conservatives, the left-wing Labour Party won elections after moving to the political center.
