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Simeon Mitropolitski is a Canadian analyst, of Bulgarian origin, and a former syndicated columnist with the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA). He is the author of several hundred articles dealing with hot political and economic topics, both national and international.

He was part of the first group of Bulgarian intellectuals and students that began the opposition movement that finally put an end to the communist regime in this country in 1989, and in 1996-1997 participated in international observation teams during the elections in several Balkan countries - Romania, Albania and Bulgaria.

In 2002 Simeon and his family moved from Bulgaria to Canada where they live now in Montreal, province of Quebec. Simeon is a Master of Political Science from McGill University and a B.A. of Political Science and History.

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"Follow the money and you'll find where the better life is",
"None is trying to escape from the good life".
These and hundreds more proverbs explain the link that exists in the European and American minds between the material prosperity and the reason of well-being. That's why the French economic magazine L'Expansion for the second year in a row has published the listing of 15 most dynamic regions in Europe to show where to go if we plan to relocate ourselves or to transfer our money.

According to this year's report, the front-runner regions in Europe are:

• South Bavaria (Germany) scores 40 points*
• Stuttgart (Germany) - 38 points
• Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire (UK) - 30 points
• Karlsruhe (Germany) - 28 points
• Darmstadt (Germany) - 27 points
• Stockholm (Sweden) - 25 points
• Aaland (Finland) - 20 points
• Braunschweig (Germany) - 20 points
• Tubingen (Germany) - 19 points
• Mittelfranken (Germany) - 18 points
• Centro (Portugal) - 16 points
• Freiburg (Germany) - 16 points
• Trentino (Italy) - 15 points
• Oberosterreich (Austria) - 14 points
• Brabant (Belgium) - 12 points

What we see here deserves comment. The magazine has a goal to show the most dynamic regions in Europe but in fact among the first group there are none from Eastern Europe. From southern parts of Western Europe there are only two examples - No.11 and 13. 10 out of 15 represent some of the initial core EU countries - Germany, Italy and Belgium. Almost half of the regions are in just one country - Germany.

By the way, the criteria used by this magazine show not exactly the dynamic, but rather the static factors like living standard or the number of high-tech positions. I'm almost certain that Central European countries and former East Germany are nowadays far more dynamic than their western counterparts. But they simply have begun from much lower levels so they don't represent much interest for western experts.

As for the dynamic development in (West) Germany, it was the German speaker at the international real estate conference in Riga Alexander Jecht who said that in spite of the very good investment conditions there isn't any boom in the investment activity in the country. How we could call such country "dynamic" by its development if there isn't any investment boom?

Let's return to the list of "most dynamic regions" in Europe. What we see here or rather what we don't see is the absence of French regions. A country that is rated to share (with the UK) the 4th and 5th place among the most industrialized stated in the world in fact for a long time has been a symbol of the lack of any economic dynamism. The simple argument that we have to blame for this the ruling socialists isn't very appropriate because the same kind of socialists are ruling in Germany, UK (and until recently in Italy). Given in mind that the L'Expansion magazine is loudspeaker of the French industrial circles, maybe this kind of reports have to assert the need of some radical political change in the country.

So if we are Europeans do we have to go to Germany to find the better life? If we ask this question to the people in Eastern Europe they will certainly answer with "Yes" but the problem is that they won't be allowed to relocate there. The paradox is that for those who may do this - the people from the other EU countries, Germany is far from being the Paradise on Earth so they prefer to stay home or to find some other better place to live. The main reason for this is that the countries like Spain or Ireland have experienced in the last years much bigger economic changes for good. The fact that these countries aren't included in the L'Expansion's top list doesn't mean they are less dynamic than Germany. There are enough reasons to conclude that some regions in Ireland and Spain are even more dynamic than those cited by the French magazine.

* - the points have been calculated depending on several criteria - low unemployment, number of positions in high-tech, high living standard etc.

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