Introduction

• Author: Directorate-General for Parliamentary Research Services (European Parliament)
• Pages: 1-8

Europe’s two trillion euro dividend: Mapping the Cost of Non-Europe, 2019-24

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Europe’s two trillion euro dividend:

Mapping the Cost of Non-Europe, 2019-24

Introduction

Summary

Common action by the European Union can bring significant economic benefits to citizens. The

existing single market, for example, built over several decades, has already boosted the European

(EU-28) economy by over five per cent, by offering wider choice for consumers and greater

economies of scale for producers, so increasing trade, investment and employment. In many policy

areas - from transport to research, or the digital economy to justice and home affairs - ex isting

common action could be deepened or new action undertaken in ways that would generate a

positive economic spin-off.

Since 2012, the European Parliament’s European Added Value Unit has been attempting to estimate

the potential economic gain from policy initiatives favoured by the Parliament that could boost

Europe’s economic performance over time. Such gains - or ‘European added value’ - com e

principally either from additional GDP generated or from a more rational allocation of existing public

resources, through better coordination of public spending at national and European levels. The

latest analysis suggests that there are potential gains to the European economy (EU-28) of over

2,200 billion euro to be achieved, if the policies advocated by the Parliament in a series of specific

areas were to be adopted by the Union’s institutions and then fully implemented over the ten-year

period from 2019 to 2029. This would be, in effect, a ‘two trillion euro dividend’, representing a boost

of some 14 per cent of total EU GDP (2.2 trillion out of 15.3 trillion euro in 2017).

The ten broad policy clusters where greater common action can boost the European economy -

adding up to 2,213 billion euro - are listed below and captured in graphic form in the ‘Cost of Non-

Europe Map’ featured on the next page:

• Classic single market (713 billion euro)

• Digital economy (178 billion euro)

• Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) (322 billion euro)

• Environment, energy and research (502 billion euro)

• Transport and tourism (51 billion euro)

• Social Europe, employment and health (142 billion euro)

• Citizens’ Europe (58 billion euro)

• Justice and Home Affairs - Migration and borders (55 billion euro)

• Justice and Home Affairs - Security and fundamental rights (125 billion euro)

• EU external policy (67 billion euro).

These ten policy clusters can in turn be broken down into fifty specific policy areas that form the

building-blocks of this analysis. These are set out in synoptic form under the heading ‘Latest analysis’