European politicians should steal more of their neighbours’ best ideas

to claim credit for new ideas. But originality in policymaking is overrated. Devising laws from scratch is hard. Figuring out how a new policy will work in practice is even more so. Observing how a scheme has worked elsewhere, by contrast, is quite easy. And Europe, with 40-odd countries, most of them quite similar by global standards, offers many examples to learn from. If something works well in Spain, it may work in Bulgaria, too. Why innovate when you can cut-and-paste?Some good ideas have indeed crossed borders. Short-time work schemes are one example. Instead of laying workers off when covid-19 crushed demand for their labour, many European employers cut their hours (sometimes to zero), and states made up part of their lost wages. Thus, workers remained attached to employers, and quickly returned to work when demand picked up again. Germany had shown the idea worked after the financial crisis of 2008. But too often politicians think pilfering is beneath them. They should put their pride aside. For starters, here are six policies that have worked well in one country and might usefully be filched.