The longer Gordon Brown was Chancellor the worse was our economic competitiveness. Producctivity fell while the others improved. Now he's in No:10 he still be in charge so there'll be no improvement Christina Speight. ============== GLOBAL BRITAIN Briefing paper No 48 (Not yet online) EFTA COUNTRIES ARE SO MUCH BETTER OFF On average the member countries of EFTA (the European Free Trade Association, comprising Switzerland, Norway and Iceland which remain outside the EU) are twice as prosperous (measured by GDP per capita) according to a briefing paper from Global Britain. The paper also highlights some other interesting facts, including: ==On average the EFTA countries are 73% more prosperous than those of the EU’s Eurozone. ==The United Kingdom is the eighth most prosperous EU country. On average, EFTA countries are 50% more prosperous than the UK. ==The UK, with 16 per cent of EU-27 GDP and 12% of EU-27 population, has only 8% of the votes in the Council of Ministers, the main decision-making body of the EU. ==The “Big Four” EU countries (Germany, the UK, France and Italy, together account for 65% of EU-27 GDP and 54% of EU-27 population. ==The “Big Eight” EU countries (the Big 4 plus Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium and Sweden ) together account for 84% of EU-27 GDP and 70% of EU-27 population. ==The most prosperous countries in the EU are Luxembourg, Ireland, Den mark and Sweden. == The least prosperous countries in the EU are Bulgaria, Romania, Latvia and Slovakia. --------------------------------------------- (retyped from Eurofacts 7.9.07)