Mario Draghi has warned that the EU’s economic competitiveness is on the retreat due to “inaction” by Brussels and national capitals, a year after the former Italian premier set out recommendations on how to close the gap with global rivals such as the US and China.
Draghi, who also served as president of the European Central Bank, was tasked by the European Commission to put forward a report on the bloc’s competitiveness in September last year. His 383 recommendations were adopted by the commission as a framework for overhauling the EU economy, but just a fraction of them have been implemented since, with the rest mired in political disagreement and bureaucratic wrangling.
“One year on, Europe is . . . in a harder place,” Draghi told a news conference on Tuesday. “Our growth model is fading. Vulnerabilities are mounting . . . and we have been reminded, painfully, that inaction threatens not only our competitiveness but our sovereignty itself.”