site.btaHead of Bulgarian Industrial Capital Association: EU's Economy Lags Behind

Chair of the Bulgarian Industrial Capital Association (BICA), Vasil Velev, who spoke at a forum entitled Resilient and Efficient Energy for a Future-proof and Secure Economy here on Monday said that the economy of the European Union (EU) has not been developing dynamically enough recently as evidenced by the results of last year and the forecasts for this year.

The forum, organized by BICA and the European Economic and Social Committee in partnership with Veolia Bulgaria, was also attended by the caretaker Minister of Innovation and Growth, Rosen Karadimov.

Velev said: "In recent times, GDP growth has been in the range of 0 and 1%, while in the US it is between 2 and 3%, in the Russian Federation it is 3% and above, in China between 4 and 5%, in India between 6 and 7%."

Velev said that Europe has further reduced its share in the global economy over the past five years, while the share of government spending of European Member States has been growing. He believes that there are many reasons for this. Including the demographic crisis in Europe, which in his words is a demographic disaster in Bulgaria. Another reason he pointed out is laziness, as both Europe and Bulgaria have a policy of working less while striving to live better.

Other reasons Velev listed were education "running away" from engineering industries, regulations and problems with security and access to energy.