Response Brussels: Irini Zarkadoula
With the competitiveness of the EU economy being one of the major goals of the new term, Mario Draghi will be at the Commission’s headquarters on Monday to hand over to Ursula von der Leyen the report he was tasked with preparing.
The high prices of energy and the need to speed up digitization are among the challenges facing the EU, Super Mario highlights in his report, the basic framework of which was presented both at the Conference of Presidents in the European Parliament and at the Permanent Representatives of the EU .
The strengthening of the defense industry is expected to have a prominent role, something that the member states are also focusing on, while Mario Draghi calls for reforms as well as a reduction of Brussels bureaucracy.
Member States simultaneously point to the need to strengthen cohesion and underline the importance of the issue of state aid.
On the carpet the position of the EU in relation to its competitors
The report is also expected to focus on the lack of innovation and technology-related skills, highlighting the EU’s position in relation to its rivals, the US and China.
Overall, the five pillars of the Draghi report are: productivity, reducing dependencies, climate, social inclusion and directions for the major sectors of the economy.
What the Italian former prime minister and former head of the ECB is asking for is, among other things, the full mobilization of all EU institutions to deal with the issue of competitiveness. The report which the Commission will study in order to proceed with the actions it deems necessary, will consist of the highlights, but also a series of recommendations.
About a year ago Ursula von der Leyen from the floor of the Parliament in Strasbourg in her State of the Union speech called on Mario Draghi “one of the great economic minds of Europe”, as she said, to prepare a report on the future of European competitiveness.
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