From Strasbourg – The European elections are more than a month away, but the watchword for the next legislature has already been chosen: competitiveness. This is what all the main leaders of the European Union have been talking about for months now. It is competitiveness that Mario Draghi was asked to deal with on behalf of the Commission. And it is always competitiveness that was discussed at the latest European Council last week. Also confirming the line is Ursula von der Leyen, who spoke today in Strasbourg – during the last primary before the June elections – for a speech that resembles an electoral manifesto on the priorities of the next legislature. «Restoring our competitive advantage must be at the center of Europe’s economic agenda in 2024 and beyond. I am absolutely convinced that, with the necessary push, we can give rise to a new impetus in European competitiveness”, explained the President of the European Commission.
Von der Leyen’s four-step plan
In his challenge to revive European competitiveness, von der Leyen identified four priorities on which the next Commission will have to work. The first: stimulate investments. For the past five years, he has remembered the spitzenkandidat of the EPP, «we have launched investment programs at levels never seen before». Now, however, we need to take a step further. And this extra step is called the Capital Markets Union, an issue that former Prime Minister Enrico Letta also emphasized in his report on the Single Market. “We heard excellent ideas from Letta at the last European Council,” von der Leyen commented today. The completion of the Capital Markets Union, he added, would make it possible to mobilize “the immense European private capital” and “would lead to the raising of 470 billion euros” in additional private investments. Money that Brussels desperately needs to finance what the president of the European Commission defines as “the greatest revolution of all time”.
The second priority has to do with energy costs. The era of cheap supplies from Russia is over once and for all, but price increases continue to “damage the competitiveness of companies, especially the most energy-intensive ones”. Hence von der Leyen’s request to continue along the line already traced in recent years to “produce more clean energy at a lower cost”. The third priority, then, concerns the shortage of manpower. The European Union, the President of the European Commission recalled, has a very low unemployment rate, but it is necessary to reduce the number of young people without work and respond to the demand for labor coming from companies. Finally, the last priority: trade with the rest of the world. “If it is true that 90% of the most significant growth in the next decade will take place outside the EU, we should try to access these markets,” explained von der Leyen. In short, no protectionism. Rather, an opening towards emerging markets, with the aim of «ensuring the import of critical raw materials» but being very careful «not to push European companies out of the market».
Draghi’s warning
The words spoken today in the European Parliament by Ursula von der Leyen largely reflect those of Mario Draghi. In recent months, the former prime minister and former president of the ECB received a super-consultant role from Brussels. The request: to revive European competitiveness and suggest a path through which the Old Continent can keep up with the United States and China. The conclusions reached by Draghi have been summarized in a report, which will shortly be delivered to the leaders of the European institutions. A taste already arrived last week, during a speech by Draghi in La Hulpe, Belgium. Addressing the other leaders present, the former Italian prime minister called for a “radical change” in the European institutions, to “restore our competitiveness” and keep pace with the United States and China. The former Italian prime minister, who many are rumored as a possible new face of the next European legislature, reproached Brussels for the absence of “a global strategy”, which balances the right ambition in terms of environmental and climate policies with a new “policy industrial” that protects European companies from foreign competition.
The controversy over Michel’s absence
While von der Leyen outlines her strategy to revive European competitiveness, the hall of the European Parliament is almost deserted. Only the leaders of the various political groups were present, while most of the MEPs were still wandering around the corridors of the Strasbourg headquarters. However, there is one absence that is more noticeable than the others: that of Charles Michel, president of the European Council. “We are here talking about the conclusions of the EU Council without President Michel, I see a clear lack of respect on his part”, reproaches Manfred Weber, group leader of the EPP in the European Chamber.
On the cover: The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, at the plenary of the European Parliament, 23 April 2024 (EPA/Ronald Wittek)
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