The writer is a member of the executive board of Bertelsmann Stiftung
Mario Draghi’s recent report on European competitiveness has sounded alarm bells across the continent, particularly in Germany. The former European Central Bank president tells it as it is: stagnating productivity, lagging digital innovation, an ageing population, a shrinking workforce and the double load of digital and green transitions put the European model at risk.
Gone are the days when Germans could consider bad economic news from Europe as other people’s problems. The continent’s once unchallenged industrial leader is in deep trouble — so much so that some neighbours now, only half-jokingly, talk about it as a “failed state” where the trains don’t run and 10-year-olds can’t read. Not only does Germany’s image abroad need improving, the country also needs to rethink its growth model and is best advised to do so in co-operation with fellow Europeans. This is why the first and loudest political reactions from German policymakers on Draghi’s magnum opus miss the point.