EU capitals are watching with alarm as US President Donald Trump tramples on political and commercial norms at home and globally — while privately wondering if America’s misfortunes might open up opportunities for Europe. If so, the opportunities are not being seized.
A year after Mario Draghi’s doorstep-sized report urged the EU to improve its competitiveness, the former Italian prime minister warned instead last week that the bloc was falling further behind its global rivals. For all the efforts to bolster resilience in the face of Trump’s tariffs and demands for Europe to fund more of its own defence, Draghi warned that “inaction” on structural reforms by Brussels and EU states “threatens not only our competitiveness but our sovereignty itself”.
It was a damning verdict, but not unfair. Of Draghi’s 383 recommendations, including integrating capital markets, strengthening supply chains and aligning business regulations, an audit by the European Policy Innovation Council found only 11 per cent had been adopted. Deutsche Bank analysts found most progress had been in scaling up the defence industry, where the urgency was felt most strongly, and in areas of least resistance such as cutting red tape — though this had sometimes been done in ham-fisted ways.