Europe has a highly developed market for IT products and is a real opportunity in terms of size and growth potential.
Currently European firms do not spend as much on IT as their US counterparts. This is changing and will rapidly achieve the same level (8 percent versus 6 percent of total revenues) to compete in terms of efficiency and productivity. The following pages offer a very brief and general overview.
Unity in Diversity - the European Union
Though richly diverse, the countries that make up the EU (its ‘member states') are all committed to the same fundamental values: peace, democracy, the rule of law and respect for human rights. They seek to promote these values, to build and share prosperity and to exert their collective influence by acting together on the world stage.
Over half a century, the Union has raised its citizens' standard of living to unprecedented levels. It has created a frontier-free single market and a single currency, the Euro . It is a major economic power and the world leader in development aid. Its membership has grown from six to 25 nations, A further two (Bulgaria and Romania) hope to join in 2007. The enlarged EU of 27 countries will have a population of nearly half a billion.
Europe is becoming increasingly heterogenous, but every single country in Europe and the European Union is quite different from the others. This is not only due to the diversity of language but in particular the manifold cultural roots and from these the mental differences which vary from region to region, from country to country.
The European Union is one of the most powerful regional organisations in existence. In certain areas where the member states have given over national sovereignty rights to the Union (e.g. currency, monetary policy, the internal market, foreign trade) the EU begins to somewhat resemble a confederation. However, the member states remain the masters of the treaties whereas the Union does not have the power to transfer additional competencies from the member states onto itself. Also the various member states presently maintain their own foreign relations and policy as well as supply for their own defense even though the European Union encourages cooperation in these areas as well.
We would like to introduce you to the member states, markets and business opportunities on our website. In addition to this we offer a number of industry-specific research reports about topics which range from the banking industry and risk mananagement applications to infrastructure and network equipment at telco providers. These market reports will facilitate your decision-making as to whether you should enter the European Market as a whole or only into selected countries like France, Germany or Great Britain or regions like the Benelux and Scandinavia. To help you better understand the diversity of the different backgrounds and roots of the European Market, we have published some historical and geographic details about important regions under our introductory overview. Additional information is available on request but we also would like to mention the CIA-Factbook , which is a great source of information!
