EU Economy: Industry, Services, Trade & Transport

The EU's Industrial Landscape

The EU is one of the most important areas of industrial production, alongside North America and Japan. Industrial activity is the source of its European economic development. The EU's main industrial area runs from the southeast of the UK to northern Italy along the Rhine valley (Germany).

Industrial Production Trends

While old industries are in a time of recession, high-tech industries are undergoing a very dynamic period. These high-tech industries are growing around urban areas and principal nuclei like London, Paris, and around transportation networks and communication links. Industrial production in the EU faces a fundamental problem: a lack of energy resources such as oil and raw materials. The ongoing quest to achieve increasingly lower production prices has meant moving production to countries outside the EU.

Services, Commerce, and Communications in the EU

Towards a Service Economy

EU countries obtain most of their wealth from activities such as trade, transport, banking, education, technology development, and healthcare. The development of technology has allowed for enormous production of agricultural and industrial goods that increasingly require less manpower. Therefore, an important part of the workforce has been displacing towards service activities. Advanced society has generated new activities related to social needs (care for the elderly), research, or processes.

Trade

Trade between EU member countries and with the rest of the world accounts for a large volume.

Transport

For the movement of goods and people, the EU has a strong transport network and focuses part of its political efforts on improving and upgrading the Community network.

• Most transport is by road.
• There are plans to improve the network with the General Plan for high-speed railway networks.
• The shipping of goods between EU countries represents 90% of trade with the rest of the world. For this, the EU allocates part of its budget to the creation of port infrastructure.
• Air transport is a key element for the single market and the economic and social cohesion of the EU. The busiest airports are London, Paris, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, and Madrid.