8. The EU according to Draghi – as competitive as needed, as sustainable as possible

The EU according to Draghi – as competitive as needed, as sustainable as possibleBy Andrea RendaLanding on Ursula von der Leyen’s desk just as she’s putting together the new College of Commissioners, the long-awaited report by Mario Draghi on ‘the future of European competitiveness’ totals almost 400 pages collaboratively drafted by two (invisible) teams in Brussels and Rome.Draghi‘s opus magnum doesn’t disappoint when it comes to length and ambition, and is full of interesting proposals, especially in its ‘Part B’. Yet given the vision it puts forward, it will have no doubt also raise some eyebrows given its emphasis on growth and competitiveness over social and environmental stances. It’s also a loud wake-up call that too much might end up being proposed – perhaps too late – and without any form of ‘Plan B’.The first part of the report, which outlines a competitiveness strategy for Europe, could be seen as merely restating the many challenges the EU has faced over the past two decades. These include sluggish productivity growth; encumbered and impaired decision-making; increased dependency on other world powers; the piling up of massive regulatory burdens on businesses, impairing innovation; Europe’s outrageously high energy prices; and the EU’s fragmentation and related inability to deepen integration in key areas of the economy.Thus, nothing new at the end of the day – if anything, this part of the report reads like many dozens of analyses produced by international consultancy firms or the International Monetary Fund. Yet Draghi adds a more dramatic tone as he explains that the EU faces an ‘existential challenge‘ and that failure to act will lead to its eventual collapse.That said, the report is centred around a rather narrow notion of competitiveness – and in a rather uncompromising way. Other objectives, such as decarbonisation and social cohesion, appear ancillary at best. In fact, 400 pages down, the reader still lacks a precise definition of competitiveness. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.