EN Official Journal of the European Union CE 84/801

(2004/C 84 E/0897)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-0498/04

by Salvador Garriga Polledo (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(23 February 2004)

Subject: Community warning on Spanish productivity

The Commission claims that Spanish labour productivity is poor, ‘inter alia’ thanks to the low levels of education amongst the population and the slowness with which Spain is making the move to a knowledge-based economy.

This assessment has caused some surprise, and Spaniards would like to know more about the specific factors which led the Commission to reach it.

What parameters were used to arrive at these conclusions, and in what sense does the Commission think that dialogue on the issue would help narrow the gap between conceptual positions on the issue of productivity in Spain?

Answer given by Mr Solbes Mira on behalf of the Commission

(30 March 2004)

In the Implementation Report of the 2003-2005 Broad Economic Policy Guidelines (BEPGs), the Commission stresses in the introductory paragraph of the Spanish note the fact that the ‘poor labour productivity also linked to the relatively low education levels of the population and the slow transition to a knowledge-based economy raises concerns about the long-term performance of the economy’.

This assessment is based on the three following elements:

— Labour productivity per hours worked in Spain is below the EU-15 average level (1)). Moreover, the annual percentage growth of labour productivity per p remains below the EU-15 performance, as is the case since 1997. The very rapid has certainly had a negative impact on labour productivity. However, the latter the performances as regards the transition to the knowledge-based economy. In between the low level of productivity and the need to strengthen the knowledgealready identified as a key challenge for Spain in the 2003-2005 BEPGs.

3,8 % of the EU-15 erson employed still employment growth is also influenced by this respect, the link based economy was

— Although the educational attainment of the Spanish population, as measured by the percentage of the population aged 20 to 24 having completed at least upper secondary education, has progressed quickly in the last decade, it is still below the EU average (63,4 % as against 74 % in the EU-15 in 2003) and public spending in education as a percentage of the gross domestic product (GDP) remains among the lowest in the EU (4,43 % in 2000 as compared to 4,93 % in the EU-15).

— As compared to the EU average, Spain also performs badly in terms of business Research and Development (R&D) (see graph below), patents (24 per million inhabitants in 2001 as compared to 161 in the EU-15) and ICT take-up (29,5 % of households had internet access at home in 2002 as against 38,9 % in the EU-15).

Finally, the Commission would like to draw the Honourable Member's attention to section 4,5 of the same report, which does acknowledge that several initiatives have been launched to strengthen the knowledge-based economy.

(1) Forecasted for 2003See structural indicators website: http://europa.eu.int/comm/eurostat/newcronos/queen/dis-play.do?screen=welcome&open=/&product=STRIND_ECOBAC&language=en&depth=2