The so-called Laeken declaration of December 2001, which launched the process of writing a new constitution to replace the existing treaties, talked of popular concerns about too many powers being exercised at European rather than national level, about the lack of democratic scrutiny, and about European institutions and practices being rigid and hard to understand.

ECONOMIST: European Union

But such misallocations remain hard to rectify because of rigid spectrum zoning policies and a lack of clearly defined and tradable property rights.

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Greece is trying hard to free up its rigid economy.

ECONOMIST: The euro zone's periphery

Awkward though this is, e-mail's rigid protocols make it hard to innovate in the in-box.

ECONOMIST: Monitor

Soviet oil production, the most strategic sector of the civilian economy, is declining which bodes ill for meeting the rigid requirements of the domestic economy, Eastern Europe, and the crucial hard currency export market.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: US Trade Relations with The USSR and Eastern Europe