growth

  The French unemployment rate has not fallen below 7 percent since the 1970s. In the second quarter of 2026, it stood at 8.3 percent as the economy contended with low labor productivity growth, an aging population and a low workforce participation rate. Many young professionals, including engineers, are leaving the country for jobs abroad, […]

  The power dynamics within the European Union are changing. For many years, the Franco-German axis was the principal driver of European integration and of the continent’s economic and political progress. Following a prolonged period of tension that produced several wars, the friendship between Germany and France became fundamental to Europe’s success after World War […]

ooooo For much of the past decade, Europe has been weighed down by prolonged economic stagnation. Growth has slowed, productivity has stalled, and even the continent’s largest economies—Germany and France among them—have struggled to regain momentum. Yet amid this malaise, one large European economy has been moving decisively in the opposite direction. Once synonymous with post-communist hardship […]