Von der Leyen presents Draghi Report: Competitiveness has to be at the top of our agenda; move forward with the clean and digital transition

Brussels – “There is a wide consensus” that competitiveness must be “at the top of our agenda and at the heart of our action,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said as she presented Mario Draghi’s anticipated report during a press conference at the Berlaymont headquarters on Monday (Sept. 9).

According to the head of the EU executive, there is consensus, especially on two fundamental points. First, the Old Continent must move away from fossil fuels as soon as possible to achieve the ecological transition. Second, efforts to increase the Union’s competitiveness must go hand in hand with maintaining the social market economy typical of the European tradition, maintaining welfare and prosperity for all.

Von der Leyen then mentioned three examples to illustrate the work of the former ECB number one. According to the German politician, to remain competitive, we must master the clean and digital transition. After her first term in office, during which it set the rules to support it, now is the time to make it happen: “We must support our industry to go through decarbonization through innovation,” she said, adding that “we need to act on all the principal levers that are at our disposal,” from lowering energy costs to cutting the red tape. A second point is the training of workers, meaning that “we need to step up investment in skills” required by the economy of our time, especially in advanced technologies. Finally, “we need to be resilient”: Europe has gone through multiple shocks in recent years, she said, and now, it must find ways to (re)build value chains that are as robust and secure as possible.