- Securing Europe’s Place in a New World Order
ERT: Draghi’s antidote to “the slow agony of decline” is ambitious and doable, Member States must play their part
Brussels, 9 September 2024: In unveiling his much awaited diagnosis for European competitiveness earlier today, Professor Mario Draghi has conducted a serious and comprehensive review of the EU’s place in the world – and puts the finger directly on those pain points where Europe has to do better.
As the voice of Europe’s most significant corporate leaders, ERT is grateful to Professor Draghi and his team for their work to understand the EU’s advantages and disadvantages at a time of global competition and increasingly agitated geopolitics.
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In placing strong emphasis on innovation, resilience, regulatory simplification and a deeper Single Market, the Draghi Report presents a strategy that presents actionable next steps to make the EU more performant without treaty change.
Innovation¹
Innovation and the ability to drive and adapt to technological change are at the heart of Europe’s future competitiveness and prosperity. The Draghi Report makes important proposals on how to revive Europe’s potential for disruptive innovation, which ERT will analyse in detail.
Skills
ERT shares the concerns on Europe’s skills gap – and seeks to contribute to solutions via its Reskilling4Employment (R4E) programme. The Draghi Report sets out a vision how all stakeholders can take concerted action to ensure that Europe’s workforce and academia participate, contribute and prosper today and in the future.
Single Market²
Draghi’s strategy is unequivocal about the full implementation of the Single Market being a building block for competitiveness, as also promoted by Enrico Letta in his report released in April. ERT could not agree more. The indispensable role of the Single Market underlines the work required to remove persistent obstacles within the EU-27. Investing time, resource and administrative & political capacity in deepening the Single Market will increase Europe’s resilience to external shocks and boost its capacity to innovate – making it better able to compete.
Better interaction between industrial, competition & trade policies
In view of the interweaving nature of industrial policy, competition and trade, ERT fully supports Draghi’s call for a more holistic approach to these areas. This is all the more relevant in the current geopolitical context, in which other countries and regions are unabashed about viewing their interests in such a joined-up way.
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With its 60-strong membership of CEOs and Chairs of some of Europe’s most significant industrial and technology companies operating worldwide, ERT is well-placed to assess and review Europe’s competitive place in the world, vis-à-vis other regions – and the potential implication of Professor Draghi’s proposals.
The status of Europe’s competitiveness is a recurring theme analysed in ERT’s regular Benchmarking Reports³ and the semi-annual Confidence Surveys of the membership of ERT by the Conference Board*.
ENDS
A full list of the Membership of ERT is accessible here
¹ Visit ERT”s Innovation Made in Europe hub here
² Visit ERT’s Single Market section, featuring stories, technical analyses and links to the Single Market coalition-led compendium of 100 obstacles here
³ Download ERT’s 2024 Competitiveness and Industry Benchmarking Report here
*View the highlights from the most recent survey of membership of ERT here
The Draghi Report – commissioned by President von der Leyen – puts forward a vision that is potentially transformative for the medium to long term prosperity and well-being of citizens across the EU-27. In considering various dimensions of the EU’s current capacity to compete with its peers, it succeeds in advancing an ambitious, informed vision of an EU rooted in better regulation, through more coherent operation that makes better use of existing tools. That is a vision that many people have been waiting for.
We look forward to digging into this report and its recommendations further in the weeks to come. One thing is certain: the timing is right, as the new EU institutional cycle provides a fresh start in tackling Europe’s challenges. The European Parliament will soon have its say on the incoming college of Commissioners. So, it is incumbent upon national governments across the EU to quickly establish consensus on the pillars of what they see as implementable. We urge them to think big – beyond their national borders – at a scale that takes into account Europe’s future place in the world, as a key enabler of their own country’s place in the world.