The Commission will therefore conduct an international comparison of high technology policies in other leading and emerging countries, such as the US, Japan, Russia, China and India and explore the scope for closer cooperation.

15. Points out that, despite high unemployment rates in some Member States and unfilled job vacancies in others, intra-EU labour mobility remains low (EU 27: 0,29 %), as a result inter alia of existing barriers, and by international comparison, being almost 10 times lower than that of the United States and 5 times lower than in Australia; draws attention to the seven million EU citizens living or working, as of 2013, in a Member State other than their country of citizenship; recalls also that there are currently two million unfilled vacancies in the EU; emphasises, therefore, the need for fair labour mobility in the Union in order to ...[+++]fill this gap;

15. Points out that, despite high unemployment rates in some Member States and unfilled job vacancies in others, intra-EU labour mobility remains low (EU 27: 0.29 %), as a result inter alia of existing barriers, and by international comparison, being almost 10 times lower than that of the United States and 5 times lower than in Australia; draws attention to the seven million EU citizens living or working, as of 2013, in a Member State other than their country of citizenship; recalls also that there are currently two million unfilled vacancies in the EU; emphasises, therefore, the need for fair labour mobility in the Union in order to ...[+++]fill this gap;

5. Calls on the Commission to support the regions in establishing the foreseen monitoring system in an effective way, using meaningful indicators, and thereby, in particular, to provide data on which EU-wide and international comparisons can be based;

With the relative openness of its public procurement markets, the Union does enjoy a relatively special status by international comparison.

On what concerns the better understanding of the situation related to tourist products and services, the Commission has undertaken the Tourism Satellite Accounts (TSA) initiative to facilitate international comparisons of tourism and to evaluate EU tourism’s performance in internationally standardised statistical/macro-economic terms.