TERTIARY SECTOR

THE SERVICE SECTOR It’s importance has grown in the last decades. It‘s now the main sources of employment. Many activities: -Finance and trade -Transport and tourism -information and telecommunications -social and personal services.

FINANCE Europe has a well-developed financial sector. It was helped by the introduction of the euro. Many European cities are financial centres (the most important is London). But global financial crisis, which started in the US, had a great impact also on Europe.

TRADE Western Europe, together with Eastern Asia and the US, is a global market leader. Export from the European Union: manufactured goods. Imports in Europe: raw materials, oil, gas and foodstuffs from tropical regions (coffee, cocoa, tea …).

Europe's Most Valuable Exports

TRANSPORT Road, rail, air and water transportation are important across Europe. Europe was the location of the world's first railways and motorways. The transport network is developed above all in Central-Western Europe. Motorways and high-speed railroads are rare in Eastern Europe.

High-speed lines in Europe

Approximate extent of completed motorway network in Europe (May 2014)

The Channel Tunnel, one of the most important infrastructures

PORTS The main European ports are on the North Sea: Rotterdam, Antwerp and Hamburg. In Italy the main port is in Genoa, but the most important in the Mediterranean is the port of Marseille.

Rotterdam Antwerp

TOURISM It’s an expanding segment in the European economy. Europe attracts visitors from every part of the planet: in 2013, France was the most visited country in the world, Spain was the third and Italy the fifth. Many tourist destinations: seaside, cultural tourism (ancient cities, museums and archaeological sites), winter tourism in the Alps.

ICT 60 % of the EU population able to access the Internet There is a highly developed telecommunications market. ICT = Information and Communication Technology  integration of telecommunications and computers. It’s a field between the secondary and the tertiary sector, because it includes telephone and computer production as well as many activities in the information sector (newspaper, radio, TV and internet).

Many European countries are in the first ranks in the ICT Development Index: in 2013, Denmark was the first in the world, followed by Korea, Sweden, Iceland and the UK. Italy was only placed 36°.