STOCKHOLM: The European Union can provide job security without resorting to protectionism, British finance minister Gordon Brown and Sweden’s Par Nuder will tell an EU finance ministers’ meeting in Vienna later this week.The UK and Sweden said in a joint article for Swedish paper Dagens Nyheter on Wednesday that they would be speaking about policies, which could help Europe gain from globalisation and growing competition.The two countries, which are not members of the European single currency, have been among the strongest performing economies in the EU. “A protectionist Europe will become a Europe of unemployment,” Brown and Nuder warned, as heated debate rages about some EU nations trying to protect strategic industries from takeover by firms from EU neighbours and elsewhere.“Protectionism is not an option. Countries who use trade barriers or subsidies for industry to try to maintain systems of production will soon be forced to put up with lower salaries and a fall in living standards,” they wrote.“Protectionism is not a strategy for success it is the path to poverty,” read the joint article.They said that shifting from manufacturing industry to service jobs and a knowledge-based economy meant reforms, which would be painful but the emergence of competitors like India and China should still benefit Europe.Brown and Nuder said European companies could help create jobs by finding new products. Reuters//en.yabiladi.com/topics/protectionism-strategy-success-path-poverty-44-1057087-1057087.html#msg-1057087 Thu, 04 Jun 2026 19:03:45 +0200 Phorum 5.2.15