Competitiveness, Draghi sees EU commissioners in Brussels: roadmap needed

BRUSSELS - At the opening of today's meeting with European Commissioners, former Italian Prime Minister and former ECB President Mario Draghi offered a brief overview of the dynamics that have determined the current scenarios and prospects for European competitiveness.

Starting in 2016, he noted, we have witnessed a series of new and relevant facts for Europe in a wide variety of areas, from the election of Donald Trump to the overbearing emergence of the green transition on the agenda of governments and organisations, to the much faster than expected advent of artificial intelligence. In this context, the European economy has gradually weakened, losing momentum and ceding centrality in supply chains, to the benefit of other countries such as theUnited States and China. The war in Ukraine has only confirmed the fragilities of the Old Continent, not only economically but also in terms of its geopolitical model.

Hence - this is basically the reasoning - the need to define a broad and detailed roadmap, which clearly identifies priorities, lines of action and policies to be implemented in the various sectors.

The identification of these paths, Draghi went on to explain, reproposing an approach dear to him, can only be based on an accurate analysis of the data. This is why the report on European competitiveness, which the former prime minister is preparing on behalf of President Von der Leyen, will be as open an exercise as possible: open to listening to all relevant stakeholders, open to contributions from all those interested in making them, open to the search for incisive and ambitious solutions.