as a standards body, yes some of the output is high. I think it serves a useful function.

on the macro level though I can't see it myself.

EU area had everything going for it in terms of being able to make drastic progressive shifts forward in multiple areas. but instead since 2008 its been doing little but dealing with the contradictions of its own self-imposed constraints. be that debt crisis, energy policy, fortress border policy, emigration issues, Brexit and endless political dramas over reactionary political movements. It's now fixated with re-armament, something that threatens to produce yet another lost decade.

Meanwhile, China and other parts of Asia have taken these same 20 years to create entire new sectors and lead the world in them.