Box 2: European Union
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The 28 member states of the European Union collectively achieve a group average score of exactly 70%, with 13 member states individually passing the 70% threshold and the remaining 15 member states making use of 60% to 70% of their human capital. Finland (2), Denmark (5) and Sweden (8) are joined in the top five by Germany (6) and Slovenia (9), which, together with Estonia (12), is the highest-scoring new member state. Next in the EU-only ranking are two of the Benelux states—the Netherlands (13) and Belgium (15)—ahead of Ireland (19), the Czech Republic (22) and France (26), which rounds off the upper half of the EU’s group league table. Despite generally strong overall human capital performances, many European Union countries, such as Spain (44) and Greece (48), are experiencing structural difficulties with regard to high youth unemployment that prevent them from leveraging the full extent of their human capital. Perceptions also vary regarding the quality of member states’ education systems and staff training, pointing to member states’ uneven levels of preparedness for the labour market of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. As part of its long-term human capital strategy, in June 2016 the European Union launched its new Skills Agenda for Europe, stating that “90% of all jobs will soon require some level of digital skills; yet, today, 40% of Europeans have none.”9