A Study on Competitiveness Disparities Manifested in the European Union

The goal of this research is to identify the competitiveness disparities existing between the European Union and the other states of the world. For their emphasis and analysis we have used macroeconomic indicators such as GDP/inhabitant, GDP growth rate, employment rate for the people with ages between 15 - 64 years old, the employment rate, the unemployment rate, the share of research – development expenditure in GDP, the number of researchers, the public expenditure on education in GDP, labour productivity, the real salaries, unit workforce costs, the export market share held or the global market share of the high-technology products. The conclusion we have reached is that the European Union states must recover the competitiveness disparities so that they don’t miss the insertion in the new technological paradigm based on information and communication technology, by restructuring the productive sectors and investments in research – development, in the context of an economic and financial environment which is confronted with structural unbalances.