{"id":435493,"date":"2025-09-16T12:31:38","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T10:31:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2025\/09\/16\/draghi-contro-gli-stati-un-anno-dopo-ogni-sfida-si-e-aggravata\/"},"modified":"2025-09-16T13:36:00","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T11:36:00","slug":"draghi-takes-aim-at-member-states-one-year-on-every-challenge-has-worsened","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2025\/09\/16\/draghi-takes-aim-at-member-states-one-year-on-every-challenge-has-worsened\/","title":{"rendered":"Draghi takes aim at member states: ‘One year on, every challenge has worsened’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels – One, and only one, word of praise for the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and many criticisms aimed at Europe and its member states. A year after presenting his competitiveness report<\/a>, Mario Draghi paints a picture of a Europe even further behind than when he left it. “Over the past year, each of these challenges has grown more acute,<\/strong>” is the premise of a long speech<\/a> that nails national governments to their responsibilities, starting with the much-discussed – in negotiations first and comments later – EU-US trade agreement and the tariffs imposed on twelve-star exports.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

“Reliance on the US for defence was quoted as one of the reasons we had to accept a
\ntrade deal largely on American terms<\/strong>,” Draghi scoffs, for an emphasis on conditions suffered that is not accidental: the criticism here is not for von der Leyen, as the European Commission negotiates on behalf of the member states, and the end of July agreement<\/a> is precisely what the governments wanted,
\nincluding the Italian one<\/a>.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Mario Draghi [Brussels, September 16, 2025]<\/p>\n

There are many challenges, including US tariffs, China’s growing influence, the rise of new economies, and geopolitical tensions. In the face of all this, “Europe\u2019s response has fallen into two traps: uncoordinated national efforts,<\/strong> or
\nblind faith that market forces will build new sectors<\/strong>.” Draghi’s is a scathing criticism of governments more than the European Commission, which he praised for concluding the trade agreement with Mercosur, seen as an asset for Europeans. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The problem with the European Union, according to Draghi, is that it does not work; everyone goes their own way, and the choices are neither coherent nor strategic. He cites by way of example, the Important Projects <\/a>of Common European Interest (IPCEI), a coordination tool among the 27 that “can concentrate the support” that economies and businesses need. “Yet in 2023, EU
\ncountries spent nearly \u20ac190 billion on state aid\u2014five times more than has been
\nallocated to IPCEIs since 2018.” A pity and a bad thing, since “used strategically, IPCEIs could help Europe achieve scale<\/strong> in sectors like innovative
\nnuclear technologies (such as small modular reactors) or in the automotive supply
\nchain for affordable zero- and low-emission vehicles<\/strong>.”<\/span><\/span> Here, the Commission is taking steps to make such projects more attractive and affordable, Draghi acknowledges. However, “the IPCEI model is still essentially national in design and funding.”<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The Europe of nation-states remains stuck in national logic and loses sight of the bigger picture, a criticism Draghi delivers through the voices of those actors who should be at the heart of the European agenda. “Europe\u2019s citizens and companies <\/strong>value the diagnosis, the clear priorities and the action
\nplans.
\nBut they also express growing frustration<\/strong>,” warns the former ECB president and Italian head of government.<\/span><\/span> “They are disappointed by how slowly the EU moves. <\/strong>They see us failing to match the
\nspeed of change elsewhere. They are ready to act\u2014but fear governments have not
\ngrasped the gravity of the moment.<\/strong><\/span><\/span>” In the capitals, he adds, “too often, excuses are made for this slowness.”<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2025\/09\/03\/nestoras-epic-one-year-after-the-draghi-report-a-sense-of-urgency-is-still-lacking\/<\/a><\/p>\n

This is the crux of a speech that produces the paradox of supporting von der Leyen while also forming an alliance against the EU Council, where good intentions are often lost due to national governments that are confused, divided, and inattentive to the challenges at stake. He cites the electric car market as an example, a classic case where the laxity of governments hinders the European Commission’s commitments and ambitions. “Charging point installation must accelerate three- to
\nfourfold in the next five years to reach adequate coverage,” he points out. The installation is up to the states, not Brussels. <\/p>\n

<\/strong>Then there is also the privacy regulation, the so-called “GDPR,” <\/strong>which burdens and slows down growth. “Research backs this up,” Draghi said, pointing out that it “has raised the cost of data by about 20 percent for EU firms
\n<\/strong><\/strong>compared with US peers.” Even on artificial intelligence we have perhaps gone too far: <\/strong><\/strong>concerning rules for “high-risk sectors such as critical infrastructure and healthcare,” they must “be proportionate and support innovation and development.” So, according to the former prime minister, “implementation of this stage should be paused until we better understand the
\ndrawbacks. More broadly, enforcement should rest on ex post assessment, judging models by their
\nreal-world capabilities and demonstrated risks.”<\/p>\n

The Europe of nation-states is wasting time;<\/strong><\/strong> of this, Draghi is more than convinced. So much so that he urges leaders to “we must move beyond broad strategies and backloaded timelines,” and he demands “concrete dates and deliverables\u2014and to be held accountable for them.” Deadlines, he argues, “be ambitious enough to demand real focus and collective effort.” After all, this “was the formula behind Europe’s most successful projects: the Single Market and the euro.” Two areas where Europe has acted as Europe, and not as a collection of states. From Draghi, therefore, comes an invitation to a new Europeanism, felt to be indispensable today.<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The author of the competitiveness report points the finger at the slow response and lack of coordination. “Excuses are too often sought”. Support for von der Leyen and a call for a new Europeanism<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":494,"featured_media":435519,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25705,25681],"tags":[26324,31262,31257,26598,26413,26270,26632],"class_list":["post-435493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-politics","tag-dazi-en","tag-ue-stati-uniti-en","tag-mario-draghi-en-2","tag-mercosur-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/494"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=435493"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435493\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":435494,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435493\/revisions\/435494"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/435519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=435493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=435493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=435493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}