Europe's economic environment has altered considerably over the last thirty years, and the economies of European countries have progressively opened up to the global economy. As a result, the competitiveness of the European economies is dependent not just on production costs, but also on the performance of pension and social security systems guaranteeing security for the future.
European countries are more opened up to the global economy than they were 200 years ago.
Connectedness to the global economy has increased in the last 30 years, but it may have started even higher and decreased until 30 years ago, then started rebounding.  The context does not imply otherwise.
( z1 open-up :ARG1 ( z2 country :location ( z3 continent :name ( z4 name :op "Europe" ) ) ) :ARG3 ( z5 economy :mod ( z6 globe ) ) :ARG2-of ( z7 have-degree :ARG1 z2 :ARG3 ( z8 more ) :ARG4 ( z9 country :time ( z10 before :op ( z11 now ) :quant ( z12 temporal-quantity :quant 200 :unit ( z13 year ) ) ) ) ) )