Voser: Europe Needs Reforms

CEO of Shell Peter Voser has said that Europe must reform itself in order to remain competitive in the market.

Speaking to Canadian news site Macleans.ca, Mr. Voser said that the European Union must work on stabilising troubled countries before it can think of moving forward.

"It [the EU] needs decisive actions, no doubt, but it will take time," he said. "Anybody who thinks this will be solved in the next 6 to 12 months I think will be proved wrong. I think the common EU market has to be defended. This is key to European competitiveness. They need to stabilize Greece, Italy, Spain. Once they have stabilisation, they can move forward."

Difficulties in the European gas market most recently have been seen in Greece, where questions have been raised about whether state-run DEPA will have enough funds to pay what it owes to Gazprom, Eni and Botas for gas imports. The company is estimated to owe around €120 million to its suppliers, which it may have to seek loans to pay for.

An uncompetitive market may also cause competitors to overtake Europe, Mr. Voser said, an issue which must be tackled at EU level.

"The EU has really no way around a major social contract adjustment," he said. "They need to go through this. It will come in stages. In order to preserve the living standards you have on average in Europe, if you want to stay anywhere close to that, you will need to adjust a few things on the labour policies, you need to start to deal with pensions, you need to deal with retirement age, average number of hours you work a week.

"That reform is coming and it will have to happen in order to preserve the competitiveness of European business. Otherwise I think we will be left behind."