“Either Europe acts together and transforms itself into a deeper union, a union capable of expressing a single foreign policy and defense policy, apart from economic policies, or I fear that the European Union will not survive unless as a single market". This is the warning, pronounced clearly and forcefully as per his habit, by Mario Draghi. The former Prime Minister and former governor of the ECB spoke about the state of the European Union during the Global Boardroom Conference of the "Financial Times". A lucid analysis, not free from criticism, but also from encouragement.
Draghi: “The EU does not compromise with its values”
The war in the Middle East has somewhat turned off the spotlight on what is happening near our home, in Ukraine, where the conflict with Russia continues. «The war in Ukraine – said Draghi – was preceded by a long series of retreats from our core values: the admission of Russia to the G8 despite the failure to recognize Ukrainian sovereignty, the failed promise of intervention in Syria if President Bashar al-Assad had used gas as a weapon, Crimea, the withdrawal from Afghanistan. The lesson that can be drawn from this is that we must never compromise our fundamental values." That is to say peace, democracy, freedom, national sovereignty.
“What we cannot do is sit still, without reacting. We have discovered that what we had taken for granted for many years was not at all, and we must fight to defend it. But I have no doubts about the final success,” said Draghi, reiterating that “there is no alternative but to win this war”.
Draghi: “In the Eurozone the risk of recession is neither deep nor destabilizing”
“I'm almost sure that by the end of the year we will have in Europe a recession. It is quite clear that the first two quarters will highlight this", said Draghi, who however reassured: the recession will not be "neither profound nor destabilizing”, because “the starting point is very high, with the lowest unemployment ever and a robust job market”.
The former Prime Minister explained that in fighting inflation “monetary policy may have been a little too slow, but there is a reason: the shock on the supply side was due entirely to the price of gas, an increase which is the result of a deliberate policy of Russia." In any case, now “inflation is falling”.
The EU must increase productivity
“The European economy must quickly regain the competitiveness lost in the last 20 years, and to do so it is necessary to increase productivity with investments in technology, rationalize defense spending, move towards common energy supplies in order to reduce prices. We need much higher productivity, also to support an aging society: we can only achieve this through investments with high added value and a high level of technology", concluded Draghi. As always: applause.
