Following the success of the historic €800 billion post-Covid recovery plan, the EU should “continue to issue joint debt instruments to finance joint investment projects aimed at increases EU competitiveness and security “, estimated the former Italian prime minister, underlining the widening economic “gap” with the United States.
“Radical Change”
“The investment needs are enormous,” he insisted at a press conference in Brussels, in the presence of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Insisting on the need for a “radical change” in the European approach, he presented some of his “170 proposals”.
The idea of a new joint loan, supported in particular by France, remains a red line for many northern European countries, such as Germany or the Netherlands, which fear being put to work more to make up for the delays. in the countries of the South. Mario Draghi admits that such a project will only be possible “if the political and institutional conditions are met”. First, it highlights the need to mobilize private capital to finance innovation by creating a true 'capital markets union'.
Economic stagnation
“Real disposable income per capita has grown almost twice as much in the United States as in Europe since 2000,” warns the former president of the European Central Bank (ECB), in this 400-page document commissioned by Ursula von der Leyen. The report should inspire the work of the new European Commission for the next five years. The EU has been stuck in economic stagnation for a year and a half. It has withstood the pandemic crisis in 2020 less well than the United States, as it already did in the 2008 financial crisis.