Draghi: EU has the strength to respond to crises, but States and Commission must stand united

Brussels – “If united, we will rise to the challenge and succeed.” Mario Draghi concluded his speech to the European Parliament, and representatives of the national parliaments of the 27 member states gathered in Brussels for a week of exchanges using these words.

There are many challenges: the economic recovery, the relationship with the US, and the war in Ukraine. “We can revive the novel, the spirit of our continent. We can regain our capacity to defend our interests, and we can give our people hope,” he said. “The national governments and the parliaments of our continent, and the European Commission and the European Parliament are called to be the guardians of this hope at the turning point in Europe’s history,” he added.

Regarding his report to the EU, Draghi explained that “since the report was published, the changes that have taken place are broadly in line with the trends that were outlined there. But the sense of urgency to undertake the radical change that the report advocated has become even greater.”

Draghi recalls the acceleration underway on artificial intelligence and that “every day we delay, the technology frontier is moving away from us. But falling costs are also an opportunity for us to catch up faster.”

Then natural gas, whose prices “remain very volatile,” like energy prices. “In parallel, increasing threats to critical undersea infrastructures, underscore the security imperative to develop and protect our grids,” he added.

Third, Draghi said, “When the report was written, the main geopolitical theme was the rise of China. Now, the EU will face tariffs by the new US administration in the coming months hindering our access to our largest export market. Moreover, higher US tariffs on China will redirect Chinese overcapacity into Europe, further hitting European firms.”

“We may also face policies devised to attract European companies to produce more in the United States based on lower taxes, cheaper energy, and deregulation. Expanded industrial capacity in the United States is a key part of the government’s plan to ensure that tariffs are not going to be inflationary,” Draghi also stressed.

Finally, “if recent statements outline our future, we can expect to be left largely alone to guarantee security in Ukraine and in Europe itself,” he warned.

According to the former premier, “to cope with these challenges, it’s increasingly clear that we need to act more and more as if we were one state,” and “the response must be fast because time is not on our side.
With the European economy stagnating, while much of the world grows.”

Draghi then returned to the need for new financial resources. “It’s now important that the Commission is given all the necessary support, both in the implementation of this program and in its financing. The financing needs are massive, 750 800 billion is a year, is a conservative estimate,” he said. However, he warns, “success will hinge on member states using the fiscal space they have available and being prepared to act within a European framework.”