Mario Draghi does not give up and, against the hawks in Europe, reiterates his warning: “If anyone opposes the idea of creating a real single market, opposes the integration of capital markets, opposes the issuance of debt, then it is opposed to the objectives of the European Union“. Clear words that the former Italian Prime Minister and former President of the ECB pronounced today in his speech in the plenary session of the European Parliament. A warning, that of Draghi, that comes back a few days later the presentation, in Brussels, of the EU Competitiveness Report: a sort of instruction manual to put Europe in the right position to face epochal challenges. More cooperation and common debt, precisely, for innovation, energy and security.
Read Draghi, the EU Competitiveness Report
“To increase productivity, some joint investments in key projects such as cutting-edge research, networks, defence procurement, will be essential and These projects could be financed by common debt“, added the former prime minister. “It is natural that these very high figures generate concerns about the increase in debt and it is legitimate to have concerns about the common issuance of debt, but it is important to remember that this debt is not for government overheads or for subsidies: its purpose is to implement all the fundamental goals for our future competitiveness that have already been agreed by all of us,” he stressed.
Draghi then continued: “We are all anxious about the future of Europe. My concern is not that we will suddenly find ourselves poor and subservient to others, we still have many strengths in Europe, but that over time we will inexorably become a less prosperous, less fair, less safe place and that, consequently, we will be less free to choose our own destiny”.
