He says it clearly: he is not proposing the Bible, but a toolbox. The recipe revealed today by Enrico Letta al European Council has the objective of relaunching Europe and defining the priorities for short, medium and long-term EU competitiveness. Because “there is no time to waste – underlines the former prime minister – the gap between the EU and the USA it is becoming wider and wider. The possibility of strengthening the single market opens up to eliminate fragmentation starting from the three points left behind. Which ones are they? Here they are: “Energy, telecommunications and financial markets. The main proposal is to integrate them." The Letta plan, therefore, is presented to the EU leaders. This is the Report on the future of the single market that the former Prime Minister drew up on behalf of the European Council itself.
Letta relationship and the axis with Draghi
Another former prime minister, Mario Draghi, has been working for months on another report: the one on competitiveness in the EU which will be officially presented after the European Championships but which in its guidelines it has already been brought forward a few days ago and which was read as a real blow to Europe, as well as actually strengthening the hypothesis of his candidacy for the leadership of the EU (President of the Commission or President of the European Council are the most popular boxes). There was, therefore, no shortage of those who wanted to grasp a sort of axis between Letta and Draghi after Europe asked both of them for an opinion on overcoming the current crisis and relaunching itself in the coming years.
Letta report: here's what the former prime minister says to the EU
“First of all we have to run – says Letta – and the next legislature must be a legislature in which we try to bridge this gap on many issues. What I will present here is not a Bible, it is a toolbox. A toolbox with a series of tools, with many possibilities to choose and use. Some of these tools may be immediately achievable. Others need a lot of time or more time. But the discussion is up to you." And again: “We live in a new world compared to when the Single Market was created: there was the Soviet Union; Germany was not in the process of reunification and we were less than half of the member states. The name of the European Union was European Communities, China and India together accounted for 5% of the world economy. This was the world when we launched the Single Market, 39 years ago. Today: a new world and new needs”.
Letta, first objective: European high-speed network
“I think that the first objective of this process – continued the former prime minister – once adopted, will be to create a high-speed train network across the continent. I think the fact that I was forced to fly is proof of something that escapes us. I put this in the report. I think that's a good point. We only have Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam as high-speed rail links between major cities in Europe.”
Read: avoid fragmentation on the single market
“The report I will present puts citizens at the centre, competitiveness means prosperity for citizens and therefore for all citizens and for all businesses. We will put theattention to small and medium-sized enterprises and competitiveness in general terms. The fundamental issue of the single market, of the internal market, is to avoid fragmentation: there have been obstacles for years and years. There is the Monti report of 2010, I took many cues from it, it's a beautiful relationship. In 14 years of the European Union the member states have not wanted to apply some of these recommendations so today we have to really push because there is a disconnect".
“The other part of the report – Letta continues in his plan – concerns the social dimension of the single market, how to help workers, how to help citizens and how to promote innovation" recalling "the proposal on the fifth freedom, which is the way to add to the normal traditional freedoms all the freedoms of the movement of goods, services, capital and people, a fifth freedom on innovation, research, knowledge, skills. data and artificial intelligence”.
Letta and the brain drain: “A spoliation”
The "Brain drain” from “regions and countries” of the EU is a “big problem”, it is “becoming a spoliation”, insists Letta. We need to deal, explains the author of the report on the competitiveness of the single market, with “how to help workers enforce their rights everywhere in Europe. Of course, freedom of residence means that freedom to remain and freedom of movement are part of the same discussion. We are experiencing too high a level of brain drain today in Europe."
“This brain drain – he continues – is normally a one-way ticket. One way ticket which I think is becoming a problem for all of us. I think we have to face it, we cannot leave this topic without solutions. It is becoming a dispossession: regions or countries lose so many people due to brain drain. I think it's a big problem and we need to address it."
Read to the 27 of the EU: "Now it's your turn to decide"
“My proposals are not a dream book, but they are pragmatic proposals which can be achieved a Treaty unchanged, now the decision is up to the Twenty-Seven”. Letta then briefly reviewed the general proposals contained in the report on the internal market which, combined with the report that Draghi is preparing on competitiveness (it was said, will be made known in full only after the June vote), will constitute the analytical and propositional basis for the future agenda for the new legislature.
Letta, who believes it is necessary to act quickly to complete the integration of capital markets (never actually taken off in an optimal way to the detriment of the market's ability to finance the European economy), energy and telecommunications to deal with multiple transitions: green, digital, social, defence/security, enlargement. The assonance between Letta's theses and what Draghi has anticipated so far of the vision that he will present in a few months appears total. And so, while the speech of the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, and Letta were public, the Council's video circuit interrupted the transmissions at the start of the discussion between the leaders.
Letta report, the conclusions
The Single Market Competitiveness Report Much more than a market it ends "with the theme of enlargement, with the proposal to create an instrument for solidarity enlargement, for a very simple reason", explains Letta. “Visiting all the Member States – he continues – I had the feeling that enlargement is becoming, for some of our people, something that is creating some concerns, due to the possibility of losing the benefits of agricultural policy and cohesion policy . We must avoid this process making enlargement unpopular. It is for this reason that accompanying enlargement with tools that can help today's net beneficiaries can be a very important point,” she concludes.
