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Not what it was

European business has improved out of recognition

WHAT with accounting scandals at Ahold and Parmalat, bribery allegations against Siemens, corruption at Mercedes, Brazilian prostitutes laid on for a Volkswagen board member and a legal challenge to a pay-off bonus at Mannesmann, European business has been having a torrid time lately. Now a criminal investigation has been launched into alleged insider share dealing at a sensitive time at EADS last spring. Meanwhile protectionism has blocked cross-border takeovers, and labour-market reforms in France and Germany have stalled.

But at the same time European business and finance has seen huge changes for the better. Europe's strength in financial services is evident not just in the City of London, which since the Big Bang liberalisation of British finance 20 years ago has expanded into the old docklands area of Canary Wharf to accommodate the flood of foreign banks that have poured into London. Strong contenders are beginning to emerge in continental Europe too. Retail banking is still too fragmented along national lines, but rationalisation in insurance has created global outfits such as France's AXA, Germany's Allianz and Italy's Generali.

Compared with America, Europe is doing very well in many service industries. Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Vodafone and Telefonica are global forces in mobile telephony. Europe's airlines make money whereas America's stagger in and out of bankruptcy. At least two failing European flag-carriers, Sabena and Swissair, were allowed to go irrevocably bust, and Air France and KLM have successfully merged. British Airways, one of the world's most profitable airlines, has a market capitalisation one and a half times that of American Airlines, the world's biggest carrier by number of passengers. EasyJet and Ryanair, two low-cost airlines, took an American business model and made it fly, and about 50 start-ups are trying to do the same. European logistics and freight giants such as DHL, TNT and Kuehne + Nagel are challenging America's Fedex and UPS.

At the same time Europe is becoming ever more integrated into the global economy, with emerging countries such as Brazil and India adding to the inward investment into the continent that has traditionally come from America and Japan. Next it will be the Chinese investing in Europe as they set up distribution and marketing networks for their own products.

European manufacturing companies too have begun to overhaul themselves. In addition to the radical reshaping at companies such as Philips and Siemens, the car industry has recast itself from a regional into a global mould, led by BMW, Mercedes and Audi. Renault became global through its partnership with Nissan and might yet be the saviour of Ford. Volkswagen is a leader in the Chinese market. Japanese and South Korean investment in Europe is forcing local firms to match the incomers' productivity and quality. Katsuaki Watanabe, chief executive of Toyota, the world's best car company, has acknowledged that even his firm has to try harder to keep up with these new rivals. It is globalisation in action.