An assessment of the implementation of the proposals a year after the publication of its report on its competitiveness, in view of its president’s annual speech, is attempting Politico, arguing, inter alia, that European governments are delayed to implement what the report provides despite being transformed into a “economic doctrine”.
Draghi is pushing EU leaders to implement his proposal
According to Politico’s article entitled: “Draghi commands European leaders: do what I told you”, the former ECB president is pushing European governments with the message “I did my job, now do your own”.
More specifically, as the European media states: “The Member States rushed to praise his proposals to address the declining EU economy when he submitted them. A year later, however, they are still delaying the instructions – and Draghi role.
Europe has adopted some of the recommendations of its plan – which was backed by the European Commission – to enhance competitiveness and which includes: Infrastructure Infrastructure Infrastructure, a “renovated” energy network that provides affordable energy to industry, coordinated military supplies for EU. to channel funds to EU start -ups.
Draghi: Leaders need to be raped
Just last month, Draghi warned that governments must make “the huge investments needed in the future” and “they must do so when conditions become unsustainable, but now, as long as we still have the power to shape our future.”
This is not the first time that the former head of the European Central Bank has made it bad warnings of Europe’s declining prospects. When he presented his report in Brussels, Draghi talked about the “slow agony” of decline. “
The leaders agree …
According to Politico then all leaders regardless of political position had agreed with Draghi proposals:
“French President Emmanuel Macron had said that Europe had to” rush “to implement Agenda Draghi. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez threw his burden on reforms to avoid “risk of backward in cutting -edge technology”.
Even the German Friedrich Mertz, who disagrees with Draghi on the main issue of the EU’s common debt, referred to Draghi’s words when he said that Germany would “do whatever it takes” to reinforce the defense of the field – reminiscent of its most famous saying.
But while leaders argue that they agree on the need for a more cohesive EU, in the background, the agenda of reforms is delayed. “
In his statements to Politico, the executive vice -chairman of the Commission on Industrial Stephanie Sezurne strategy said: “The Draghi exhibition has become the EU’s economic doctrine and everything we have proposed has since been in line with it. However, the Draghi phenomenon often fades when legislative texts are discussed by the Member States. “
… But not fully
As the report continues: “The Think Tank European Policy Innovation Council report found that only 11% of the Draghi report had been implemented. In the field of energy, the actions that need to be taken have not been taken at all.
“They are national interests, they are national policies, sometimes they are party,” said MEP Anna Sturg, who recently drafted a European Parliament’s study on the electricity grid. Speaking at an event on the Draghi exhibition a year later, the Austrian legislator of Renew Europe explained that the question is that some countries do not want to share cheap energy with their neighbors.
“If they are interconnected with countries with higher energy prices, prices will rise,” he said. “This is a fact.”
“It is not the committee that does not implement the Banking Union,” Spanish economist and former MEP Luis Garino said at the same event, referring to the attempt to dismantle all the national rules and interests that maintain the banking sector. “It is in fact the governments that do not want to allow capital to flow from one country to another.”
The same headache is found again and again, by the common debt – which is vetoed by the so -called “Pidish countries” such as Germany and the Netherlands – to defense or finishing the financial sector. It does not help the fact that countries are tightening their belt after the waste of spending of the Covid era, leaving a little money to pursue strategic goals. “
Insists on the logic of ‘collective sovereignty’
As Politico states: “Draghi is a man who is used to exercising power immediately, having channeled hundreds of billions of euros to the eurozone economy during his term as president of the ECB. Earlier in this decade, he was an Italian prime minister for over a year and a half.
In his latest incarnation as Europe’s indifferent moral adviser, Draghi has only persuasion.
If on the one hand the frantic pace of events has distracted the bureaucratic resources from the reform program, on the other hand it has also served as a strong confirmation of its report. Draghi has long been a supporter of collective sovereignty-which means that EU member states are stronger when acting as a block, even if they lose some freedoms at national level. The problem is that it is up to governments to decide to act.
Already in February, Draghi, speaking to the European Parliament, has suffered governments because they have been braking meaningful reforms.
“You say no to public debt, you say no to the single market, you say no to the creation of the capital markets. You can’t say no to everyone and everything, “he said.
Now, as the US -made -up is in a difficult position on Europe on the world stage, Draghi warned that the window for change could be closed.
The way President Donald Trump was imposed on EU negotiators, who were under pressure from the capitals to reach an agreement, was a typical example.
This was a “very hard awakening”, Draghi said at a meeting in the Italian seaside town of Rimini last month.
“We had to accept the duties imposed by our largest commercial partner and long -term ally, the United States,” he said. “We have been pressured by the same ally to increase military spending, a decision that we may have to make anyway – but in ways that probably do not reflect Europe’s interests.”
If Draghi is the brain who dreamed of the EU’s economic reform program, the Commission’s bureaucrats are the ones who are in charge of implementing it.
The General Secretariat, which refers to President Ursula von der Laien, has set up a special unit to work on it. It is headed by Heinz Jansen, a German official who was previously to the Directorate of Economic Affairs, and a total of eight other executives.
Critics argue that this is an extremely small number of staff involved in the working group and the EU executive could have set up a special address. “The president attaches great importance to the implementation of the Competitiveness Compass,” a spokesman for the Commission at Politico, referring to the plans of the EU executive power to implement Draghi’s recommendations.
According to officials who spoke with Politico, the working group is mainly working to achieve wins in the field, raising capital and channeling them into a small number of basic projects that could give Europe a chance to technologically compete with the US and China. The Commission merged many programs in a new 410 billion euro fund to finance common industrial objectives in its proposal for the budget and issues a recommendation to governments to coordinate their investment this autumn.
But here too, this will inevitably cause tensions.
“Can you really imagine an EU country funding an industrial plant in Slovenia with the money of its own taxpayers?” An EU official asked. “There is a lack of ambition … EU executive power is hostage to some major countries.”
“For years, the European Union has believed that its financial size, with 450 million consumers, has brought with it geopolitical power and influence on international trade relations,” Draghi said. “This year it will remain in history as the year in which this illusion disappeared.”
