The weakening of international trade structures by US President Donald Trump in connection with his customs policy, the de facto exit of the USA from the Western community of values and the upheavals in the global balance of power are leaving many companies perplexed. In this chaos, which national location actually still offers good prospects for their products and services in the long term? The classic location indicators such as macroeconomic stability, modern infrastructure and business-friendly (tax) conditions, which play a major role in the new competitiveness ranking of the Lausanne Institute for Management Development (IMD), are no longer sufficient in this respect. Companies need to be more careful than ever not to get caught in the middle. The global framework conditions are changing almost daily and established rules suddenly no longer apply. This shatters any investment plans that have been laid out for decades.

With a view to the best starting position for global sales markets, it is therefore also a question of which economic area pursues the smartest and most stable policy in this chaos. And here there is much to be said in favour of the EU single market due to its legal certainty and market volume. This is further supported by the realisation that a strong currency does not harm the economy, as Trump implies, but rather has a positive effect, as the IMD emphasises. And the euro certainly has a good chance of continuing to gain in reputation compared to the dollar.

What Europe still lacks in the location ranking, however, if all countries were to be taken together for an alternative ranking, is the perfection of the single market, a deepening of the capital market, stronger digital competences and more independence from other economic areas, for example in questions of digital sovereignty. If these issues are addressed in Brussels and the European nation states, more EU countries are likely to be among the IMD's top 20 countries again in the future.