Draghi report recommends new European industrial strategy
There is no question of the growing acceptance that Europe has an urgent competitiveness problem; yet this is not just an economic challenge but also a political one
THE landmark Draghi report released on Monday (Sep 9) calls for a new European industrial strategy to address an “existential” competitiveness challenge. Yet, while this project has the endorsement of European Commission (EC) President Ursula von der Leyen, it remains unclear exactly how influential it will prove, including who might pay the full mammoth cost of the approximately 170 recommendations.
That said, despite these caveats, there is no question of the growing acceptance that Europe has an urgent competitiveness problem. This is not just an economic challenge, but also a political one. This led Dr von der Leyen to ask Mario Draghi – president of the European Central Bank between 2011 and 2019, the leading central banker of his generation and also a former Italian prime minister – to write his major report.
Draghi, nicknamed “Super Mario” after the hero in the Nintendo video game, made his reputation in 2012 at a time when it appeared as though the future of the European single currency was in peril. In seven simple words – “whatever it takes to save the euro” – he changed market sentiment by pledging massive intervention to defend the single currency in what was perhaps the decisive moment of the then economic crisis.
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