The European Commission is abandoning plans to build a satellite navigation system in partnership with private industry after the consortium chosen for the project became mired in disputes about financing, jobs and management structure, officials said on Wednesday.

More social spending by EU governments is not the best way to reduce inequalities, and can have unintended consequences, says Jan Krzysztof Bielecki, a former Prime Minister of Poland. He argues that the fastest route to cohesion both between and within member states is freer movement of people, capital and services.

In March 2000, the European Union proudly announced that it would become the most dynamic and competitive knowledge-based economy in the world by 2010, with full employment and 3 percent yearly growth.1 By 2005 however, it was forced to acknowledge dismal failure,2 with poor projected growth rates and negligible reductions in unemployment. Presently, there is little evidence that the European economy will either outperform the American economy by 2010 or even produce substantial improvements on its current record.