Published in Weber L. E. & Duderstadt J. J. (eds) Universities and Business Partnering for the Knowledge Society, Economica, Glion Colloquium Series, London, Paris, Genève, 2006
Since the l950s, Europe has been engaged in an ambitious political and eonomic integration process which received a new boost with the fall of the Berlin wall in 1999 and, soon afterwards, the collapse of the communist USSR. Twenty-five countries now make up the enlarged European Union, soon to be 27, with more expected to join later. Few people doubt that this free market of 450 million people is beneficial to the citizens of Europe. Nevertheless, Western Europe, and in particular the countries which adopted the Euro, is suffering from a slowdown in economic growth, as well as high unemployment and a rapidly ageing population…..