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EU requires less expensive energy and better commercial policy to complete, Draghi says

Europe needs to decrease its energy prices, develop capital markets and have stronger commercial and trade policies to be competitive, former Italian prime minister Mario Draghi said ahead of the publication of his report commissioned by the EU.

Last September the European Commission asked Draghi, also a. previous European Central Bank president, to write a report for. the EU on how to keep its economy competitive in a world of new. security threats, climate modification and fast technological modification.

The report will be released in the coming weeks. In a. speech in Spain, Draghi provided a foretaste of its contents,. keeping in mind Europe's lower performance development compared to the United. States was primarily due to a much more powerful U.S. tech sector.

This productivity gap is most likely to broaden as the U.S. pulls. ahead in Artificial Intelligence and cloud computing, he stated.

To develop energy-intensive digital technologies, the EU. should reduce electrical power costs, which are now 2-3 times higher. than in the United States, Draghi stated.

This would need a much faster roll-out of renewable resource. sources, the advancement of electrical power grids and a decoupling. of renewable energy rates from fossil fuel-sourced electricity.

European companies must improve costs on research study and. development, which is presently half that of U.S. companies, he stated.

Public investment in R&I of around 0.7-0.8% of GDP is. similar on each side of the Atlantic, but EU costs was split. between 27 nations with little prioritisation or coordination.

The EU should develop its capital markets to allow. huge European private savings to fund EU companies through. securities like bonds and equity, he stated.

Draghi said the EU needed to coordinate preferential trade. contracts and direct investment with resource-rich nations,. develop stockpiles in picked important areas, and produce. industrial partnerships to secure key innovation supply chains.

He compared China's spending on its commercial method and. those of the EU's greatest economies, France and Germany.

According to a conservative price quote, in 2019 China spent. around three times as much on industrial policy as Germany or. France as a share of GDP, and in dollar terms at PPP (Acquiring. Power Parity) it invested around 10 times as much as both. nations combined, he said.

Draghi said the EU's response ought to be to press China to. play by global trade rules and failing that not be afraid of. imposing tariffs and using aids of its own.

(source: Reuters)