Former ECB president says Europe must gain strategic autonomy from the US
Former President of the European Central Bank Mario Draghi said on Thursday that the European Union must be more assertive with President Donald Trump’s United States.
In a speech upon receiving the 2026 Charlemagne Prize in Aachen, Germany, the former president of the ECB stated that the European Union must adopt a “pragmatic federalism” to be more decisive.
“The partner we still depend on has become more confrontational and unpredictable,” Draghi said.
“Europe sought negotiation and compromise. For the most part, it didn’t work,” he said.
“A stance aimed at defusing is, instead, inviting further escalation,” he said.
“Europe needs the ability to respond more assertively to restore the partnership to a more equitable basis. What is holding us back is security”, defended the former ECB president.
“The change in America’s attitude towards European security should not only be seen as a threat”, said Draghi, considering it “and also a necessary warning”.
“In a world where alliances are constantly evolving, every strategic dependency must now be re-examined. For the first time in living memory, we are truly alone together,” he said.
Draghi considered that “Europe is reacting to this new reality”, but it is doing so within a system that was never designed to face challenges of this magnitude.”
“For the first time since 1949, here is the possibility that the United States may no longer guarantee our security on the terms we once took for granted. Nor does China offer an alternative reference point. Our current experience is that action at the EU level (27) often fails to meet what the moment demands,” he said.
“The result is action that can be so inadequate to the scale of the challenge that it becomes worse than inaction. We must break this cycle. Countries that feel the weight of this moment most acutely and understand that the window for action will not remain open indefinitely must be free to move forward. This is what I have called pragmatic federalism,” he concluded.
Before the prize was awarded – endowed with one million euros – speeches were given in honor of Draghi by the German Chancellor, Friedrich Merz, and the Greek Prime Minister, Kiriakos Mitsotakis.
Merz highlighted Draghi as the savior of the euro in times of crisis and called for reforms to face the current situation in which the principles on which the EU was created are threatened.
“You stabilized the eurozone and the euro with controversial features. It was a risk. It could have failed, but you succeeded. Today the euro is firm and we are grateful to you,” Merz said.
Merz cited part of the speech given by Draghi when receiving the 2025 Princess of Asturias Award for International Cooperation in Spain to remember the pressure that European principles are currently under.
“We were too confident that the strength of humanist and Western ideas would transform the world into a kingdom of freedom and peace. We were wrong. But seeing the error of this naive optimism does not mean abandoning the hope that rules will prevail instead of arbitrariness”, Merz underlined.
“Europe has woken up, is expanding its defense capacity, is identifying its power resources and is willing to use them,” he added.
Mitsotakis also remembered Draghi as the savior of the euro in the midst of an “existential crisis” for Europe.
700 people attended the ceremony, including current ECB President Christine Lagarde and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
The Charlemagne Prize is awarded every year, traditionally on Accession Day and since 1950, to people who have distinguished themselves through their contributions to European unity.
In 2023, the award went to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
