Press Release Contact: Dr Tim Evans (President, CNE) + 32 (0) 2 506 4000 or +44 07956 969523, tim.evans@cne.org Immediate Release 09 December 2004

BRUSSELS, 09 DECEMBER 2004 — Europe's leading Brussels based free market think tank, the Centre for the New Europe (CNE) today launched its latest report: From Antitrust to Disaster: An Overview of European Union Competition Policy. It argues that 780,000 people may presently be unemployed thanks to the anti-competitive direction of the European Union's competition policy.

The report outlines the fundamental errors in economic theory that lead to a culture of over-regulation, sluggish economic growth and lost job-creation opportunities.

Dr. Tim Evans, President of the Brussels-based think-tank the Centre for the New Europe (CNE), said: "The ambition of the European Union is to be an open, dynamic economy - an alternative to and competitor with the United States. Its reality looks increasingly to be as a sideshow in a world still economically dominated by the United States - and soon perhaps also by China and India."

The Lisbon Agenda is about creating a culture of enterprise within the European Union. Unfortunately, the rhetoric has been accompanied by muddled thinking and interventionism that is damaging to the entrepreneurial spirit. The CNE report closes with the words of the free trader Richard Cobden, speaking in the British Parliament back in 1846:

"You may, by legislation, in one evening, destroy the fruits and accumulations of a century of labour; but I defy you to show me how, by the legislation of this House, you can add one farthing to the wealth of the country. That springs from the industry and intelligence of the people of this country. You cannot guide that intelligence; you cannot do better than leave it to its own instincts. If you attempt by legislation to give any direction to trade or industry, it is a thousand to one that you are doing wrong..."

For more information contact CNE President, Dr. Tim Evans, on +32 (0)2 506 40 00; GSM +44 (0)7956 969523. From Antitrust to Disaster: An Overview of European Union Competition Policy by Dr. Tim Evans, Dr Sean Gabb and Alberto Mingardi is available on-line at www.CNE.org and www.CNEcompetition.org.