Draghi's report on competitiveness, a wake-up call that cannot be ignored

The Employers' Group of the European Economic and Social Committee welcomes today’s publication of Mario Draghi’s report on the future of European Competitiveness.

"We very much agree and welcome the careful assessment of Mr Draghi's report on Europe's weak stand in the world economy and believe many of the ideas in there are not new, but are good news – said Stefano Mallia, President of the Employers' Group.

"The focus on closing the innovation gap, a competitiveness-driven decarbonisation, increasing security and financing investments while strengthening governance seems to be the right recipe for a forward-looking strategy that would restore Europe's economic global leadership," Mallia added.

Mr Draghi rightly draws attention to the worrying trend of companies and investment leaving the EU due to an overly complex and bureaucratised regulatory framework, which is also a source of fragmentation. He called for regulating less and be more focused, in order not to hinder competitiveness, quoting the 13.000 new EU rules versus the 3000 adopted in the US during the same time.

The bleak economic outlook is so serious that not only EU unicorns, but also very well-established EU firms are moving to the United States. "The unicorns mentioned by Mr Draghi are unfortunately the most visible tip of a melting iceberg," underlined Mr Pierre Bollon, French member of the Employers Group.

"We all agree with Mr Draghi's analysis and assessment of the EU's malaise. The medicine - more investment - is also clear.  It just lacks new ideas on how to convince national politics to jointly do something about it," added German member Sandra Parthie, who is President of the EESC Single Market, Production and Consumption Section.

Spanish member Antonio Garcia del Riego welcomes "separate jurisdiction for European banks with substantial cross-border operations” that would be “country blind” from regulatory, supervisory and crisis management viewpoints to move towards an EU single market for banking.  "No economy can compete without a competitive financial sector, mainly when 80% of funding needs are channelled via banks in Europe," he added.

In conclusion, EU employers find Draghi’s report to be in line with their priorities, in line with Enrico Letta’s report but maybe more ambitious. "Some points are known, some other less but in any case, the urgency and clarity of the text is a strong wake-up call, or maybe a last call for EU," added Italian member Matteo Borsani.

The Employers' Group members and partner organisations will examine in detail all the proposals of the report and look forward to having in-depth debates on how to better align policies to deliver competitiveness in Europe.

For more information, please contact:

Daniela Vincenti, Communication Adviser
daniela.vincenti@eesc.europa.eu
+32 497 412095