The former Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi today criticized the European Union (EU) for its sluggishness and inertia concerning competitiveness, calling for a new dynamic to achieve results “in months, not years.”
“Businesses and citizens express growing frustration and are disappointed with the EU’s slow pace of action,” Draghi stated while speaking at a high-level conference to analyze the European Commission’s progress in implementing the recommendations set out in the report he authored a year ago.
The former president of the European Central Bank (ECB) emphasized the need for the EU to take a different path, requiring “a new speed, scale, and intensity,” achieving results “in months, not years.”
He argued that opting for a new competitiveness approach means that member states must “act together and not fragment their efforts” and “concentrate resources where the impact is greatest.”
“Sometimes inertia is even presented as respect for the rule of law,” he noted, adding that “this is complacency.”
Referring to the dynamics of the United States and China, the EU’s major competitors, Draghi highlighted that they are less constrained and warned that if the EU does not change its course, it will have to resign itself to falling behind.
Recalling that a year after publishing his report on the EU’s competitiveness, the bloc is in “a more challenging situation,” Mario Draghi declared that the European growth model is fading.
“Inaction threatens not only our competitiveness but also our sovereignty,” he added.
In his report published in September 2024 and commissioned a year earlier, Mario Draghi estimated annual additional investment needs in the EU at 800 billion euros compared to China and the United States, equivalent to more than 4% of the EU’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and surpassing the Marshall Plan.
The former president of the European Central Bank proposed, among other measures, a regular issuance of common debt in the EU, as was done to address the COVID-19 crisis, massive investment in defense, and a new community industrial strategy.
The Draghi report outlined three priorities for Europe: addressing the innovation deficit in advanced technologies, charting a decarbonization path that supports growth, and strengthening economic security.
