EU countries team up for semiconductor push

English IS the lingua franca in Europe, right now, at this moment, no question about it. Even the in remotest parts Generation Z and younger speak and understand a little bit, it is only the older folks who still remember the EU with borders are reluctant to speack anything else other than their own language.

And there are more and more people picking up a third language as they move around within the EU.

English is well suited for this lingua franca thing because at the beginner-to-mid level the syntax is simple, and you can get by with a few hundred words, much better than in other languages. Also there is a common pronounciation that is different for everyone (and reflects the mother tongue of the speaker heavily), but again, people speak slowly enough that it is possible to understand what they are trying to say.

Which cannot be said about the native speakers (coming from the UK, mostly), so the UK leaving us might actually improve the situation. No more awkward meetings where 20 people understand each other reasonably well, but not the single UK representative... (true story)

Next, China is sponsoring actively similar agreement for African countries. Africa is a potentially huge market and has a lot of natural resources. It seems that Europe totally drop the ball here, the only thing they have done was to destabilize some of the African countries in the name of supporting democracy - this failed miserably everywhere, new rulers were equally undemocratic and often even more hostile towards Europe.

The same with US, they totally gave up Africa, they could not to come up with something else than mumbling about democracy and trying to impose some post-colonial trade deals. China is playing this game much, much better and, whatever I think of them, they have actually something substantial (investments other than digging diamonds and cobalt) to offer.

Europe will loose Asian and African market, India is building up its economy fast as well, so soon Europe will not have anything to sell over there too. Europe lags behind US for a long time in all aspects (education, innovation). This only means marginalization and the role of destination for cheap crap that cannot be sold on other markets.

It seems that UK politicians sort of noticed that, that's why they decided to cut ties with EU without much fear (brexit without any agreement) as they count on their influence and position in Commonwealth countries, what will give them backdoor access to developing markets and be part of the global economy.

Europe leaders really need to wake up. Stop concentrating on immaterial issues, push for more competitive economy, lower taxes, less regulations, development of innovative companies in a natural way, not buy being financed from some EU founds - this just does not work, as this creates companies that are good in acquiring those funds, not creating market value.

Common market should be available for all EU countries, not only (still) the richest ones - "innovations" like 2014/67/UE directive are not helping - this one hit less developed EU countries - it forces companies to pay local wages for workers who are delegated to work in other country. As a result the truck driver from Poland has to earn the same money as the driver in France, Holland, Germany, depending where the truck is in the given moment of time. This makes new EU countries companies less competitive. And nobody cared that it violates EU treaties and the rules of "free movement of goods and services".

Stop internal fighting with anyone who dares to have different views or elect government that EU bureaucracy does not like (Italy a few years ago, today Poland and Hungary).

There are very noble ideas like reduction of CO2, this is important, but maybe Europe just can't afford being the leader in that effort if the rest of the World just does not really care? Europe need sources of clean and cheap energy. What the biggest EU economy does? Nord Stream 2, to buy gas from Russia. Is it helping? Not really. Why can't Europe start spending funds on innovations in nuclear and fusion energy reactors?

I don't see any leaders that Europe used to have who could push Europe in the right direction, unfortunately.

I am waiting for someone who would just say: hey, maybe moving whole "The European Parliament" every month from Brussels to Strasbourg and back does not make any sense and it costs a lot of money that can be spent better.

"s I lived or visited in Europe cheap enough to compare was Prague and Lisbon."

Lisbon is a bad example. Real Estate is out of control there. A decent apartment will set you back at least 500k, thanks to supply and demand due to the Golden Visa.

" employer-paid healthcare." If you have an employer and everything goes smooth

"Educating your children for K-12 is free at the point of service, paid for by tax dollars"

There are a few excellent k12 schools if you live in the right place (did we mention real estate costs?). But if you want your children to go to a good school you likely have to pay for private school. Then the universities fees later. I think my school in the US bills you 60k or something per year. 4 years, two kids, this sets you back already about 1/2 million. If you pay for k12 we are talking easily 1 million for education alone.

"There are ton of totally valid and reasonable criticisms of life in the US that would not incentivize someone to move here, "

No sure. If you do the right thing at the right time the US is great. I immigrated, got a STEM PhD, got naturalized and then left to China. Never looked back. And if I see not how my friends that stayed are struggling, it was a really good decision.

Not everybody works in IT my friend.

(and the US cultural influence is the main reason for this, the UK doesn't really matter much in that regard since around the 19th century).