EU Presented a Plan on How to Win the Economic Battle to China and the US

Mario Draghi, former president of the European Central Bank and former Italian prime minister, has presented a plan to stop the EU’s economic decline. The plan is that the bloc needs to invest even twice as much as Europe invested in its reconstruction after World War II, eurointegration.com.ua wrote. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen asked Draghi about a year ago to prepare a monumental report on the future competitive ability of the EU. After months of writing behind closed doors, the plan was finally unveiled on Monday. The aim of Draghi’s 328-page report is to pull the EU, which lags behind the US and China, out of the abyss of low productivity and weak growth. Draghi said the EU needs an unprecedented level of investment - more than double the level at the time of the Marshall Plan, which sent $13bn to Western Europe in the late 1940s and early 1950s. This is equivalent to about $150bn today. Draghi is pushing for the EU to issue new joint debt to finance its industrial and defense needs, which some governments oppose. He said the EU’s aim of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to zero by mid-century gives the bloc the opportunity to create and export clean technologies around the world. “We must abandon the illusion that only procrastination can preserve consensus. Delay has only led to slower growth and certainly has not led to greater consent. We have reached a point where without action we will have to either jeopardize our welfare, our environment or our freedom,” Draghi said. At the heart of Europe’s economic problems, the report argues, is the cost of energy for industry, which now has to pay 158% more for electricity than in the US and 345% more for natural gas. Draghi sees artificial intelligence as an opportunity for Europe to “correct its shortcomings in innovation and productivity and restore its production potential.” He urged to integrate AI “into our existing industries so that they can stay at the forefront.”