Is EU competition policy an obstacle to innovation and growth?
European countries need to improve their record of developing high-tech businesses if they are to prosper. This was explicitly recognised in the EU's Lisbon agenda of economic reforms launched in 2000. The reasons for Europe's poor record of innovation are complex, but one factor may be competition policy. In this essay, Simon Tilford argues that EU competition rules are less favourable to innovation and hence competition than their advocates believe.