Mario Draghi: How do we change our continent’s trajectory?
On 22 August 2025, the former President of the Council of Ministers of the Italian Republic and Governor of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi, spoke at the Rimini Meeting, organised by Communion and Liberation (CL), to analyse the current situation of the European Union, focusing in particular on the “Report on European Competitiveness” he authored.
“The Report on European competitiveness highlighted a number of areas where Europe is losing ground and where reforms are most urgently needed. But there is a recurring theme throughout the report: the need to fully take advantage of the European scale in two directions. The first is the internal market”, stated Draghi.
“The Single European Act was adopted nearly forty years ago. And yet there remain significant obstacles to intra-European trade. Removing these obstacles would have a considerable impact on European growth – highlighted Draghi. The International Monetary Fund estimates that if our internal barriers were reduced to the level of those applied in, for example, the United States, the Union’s labor productivity would be about 7% higher in seven years. Conversely, over the past seven years, total growth in productivity was only 2% here in Europe”.
“The cost of these barriers is already visible. European countries are preparing to launch a massive military venture with €2 trillion — a quarter of which will come from Germany — in additional defense spending planned between now and 2031. And yet we are still imposing internal barriers equivalent to a 64% tariff on industrial equipment and 95% on metals. The results are clear: slower bidding, higher costs, and more purchases from suppliers outside the Union, all while not stimulating our economy. All this because of obstacles we impose on ourselves”.
“Governments must determine which sectors to focus their industrial policy on. They must remove unnecessary barriers and review the structure of energy permits. They must agree on how to finance the colossal investments needed in the future, which the European Commission estimates at around €1.2 trillion per year. And they must come up with a trade policy which is adapted to a world which is moving away from multilateral rules”, concluded Draghi.
The full text of the speech is available here.
