Not everyone in Europe agrees with the idea of common investments and European finances to relaunch Europe, or is it indispensable? “Let’s say yes, it’s essential, but it’s not the first thing,” he replies Mario Draghi to questions from journalists at the Budapest summit.
“What the report says – he continues – is that there are many other decisions that can be taken without immediately addressing the problem of common public financing. This is clearly necessary for some common projects, of common European interest, and it is expected that for these projects there is common funding. An example – continues the former Prime Minister – are interconnections in the energy field“.
As for the possibility of increasing defense spending, Draghi observes that “is it possible to spend 2% of GDP on defense while respecting the Stability Pact? A whole series of decisions will have to be taken, in this it is useless to say whether it is possible or not Today we have to decide what to do because this is the new situation, and the outlook is solid.”
Draghi hopes “that we will rediscover a unified spirit with which we will be able to, so to speak, find the best from these great changes. Go in no particular order? We are too small, we are not going anywhere. The European Union is ready for a possible trade war with the United States? I just said that we need to negotiate with the American ally, in order to also protect our European producers.”
For the former prime minister, the indications of the report on competitiveness in Europe are “already urgent, given the economic situation we are in today”, now “they have become even more urgent after the elections in the United States”, because, he warns “not There is no doubt that the Trump presidency will make a big difference in relations between the United States and Europe.”
“Not necessarily – observes the former Prime Minister – everything in a negative sense, but certainly we should take note of it. From the point of view of the prospect of the relationship, therefore of the relaunch of competition in Europe, a couple of things that come to mind are that this administration will certainly give great further impetus to the technological sector, to the so-called high tech, where we are already far behind and this is the driving sector of productivity”.
“Already now – Draghi recalls – the difference in productivity between the United States and Europe is very large, so in a certain sense we should act and most of the indications in the Report focus on this issue alone”.
“The other example – he points out – is that certainly little is known about what exactly will happen, but one seems more certain than the others, and that is that Trump will give a lot of impetus in the innovative sectors and will protect the traditional industries, which are precisely the industries where we export most in the United States.”
“So – this is the path indicated by Draghi – there we will have to negotiate with the American ally, with a unified spirit in such a way as to also protect our European producers”.
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