More Europe

<h>European CEOs</h> want more - not less - Europe to boost entrepreneurship in the Union. Business leaders want member states and Brussels to implement over-due tasks: they want to see action now!

It's good news from Europe – up to a point. The first comprehensive CEO survey among Europe's business leaders, conducted by Roland Berger Strategy Consultants, shows that top executives are confident about the region's economic perspective but much more skeptical about the political support by the EU. Business leaders are getting impatient concerning the implementation of key policies. They want the European and member state levels to work together toward a more aggressive deregulation of markets and products in the Union.

Over a period of five months between October 2006 and March 2007 and across nine European countries, CEOs, CFOs and COOs were asked for their opinion on Europe's development. In total, 430 CEOs of leading European companies responded to the survey questions. Top executives chosen to participate in the survey head companies from large companies, flanked by opinions from midsize companies with at least EUR 250 million in annual turnover across a wide range of industries.

After years of debating the "Lisbon Agenda", 91 percent of European CEOs feel that the Union is still not moving quickly enough on the liberalization of markets and product regulation. Speaking at the European Business Summit in Brussels, Dr. Burkhard Schwenker, CEO of Roland Berger Strategy Consultants, said: "One of the messages of this CEO survey is that the EU needs to tackle the tasks widely discussed and agreed upon."

CEOs are anxious to see the Union and its member states con-solidate their policies and finally do their homework. A third of the managers queried are critical of the way their own governments conduct EU policy making. French CEOs (71 percent) are particularly discouraged by their government's failure to convince voters of the benefits of the EU Constitution.