France (once again) dominates the United Kingdom in the race for foreign investments amid a European slowdown – POLITICO

France remains the most attractive European destination for foreign direct investment in 2023, according to an EY survey published Thursday, as new projects slow across Europe.

For the fifth year in a row, France beat the UK and third-placed Germany, but EY warned that Paris’s European leadership could be challenged “by a persistent competitiveness gap, alongside the repercussions of the social climate dominant and the recent energy crisis.

“Financing, labor costs and taxation – the fundamental principles of competitiveness – are still considered handicaps,” says the report, also highlighting a decline in “quality of life”, attributed to the French “social climate”. . France also saw research and development projects fall 15% year-on-year, EY said.