Investing in the EU cannot continue to be an “obstacle course” and action is urgently needed because Europe’s loss of competitiveness compared to China or the United States is “dramatic”, warned former Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta in Madrid on Friday. At an event organised by the New Economy Forum, the president of the Jacques Delors Institute defended the extensive report he prepared and presented to EU leaders at an extraordinary summit last April, in which he proposed measures to complete the integration of the single market and to confront the leadership of the United States and China in the world.
“This report is a practical toolbox that can be implemented without changing the treaties. [comunitarios]“We must leave behind the ideological clash and recognise, regardless of whether we are pro-European or pro-sovereignty, that the single market is what allows us to create jobs and guarantees competitiveness.” “In the small world of yesterday we were big,” the former president summed up, recalling that in 1985, Spain and Italy together had the same economic weight as China and India at that time. But “today the world is big and we are medium-sized countries, only Europe allows us to be big and capable of competing,” he emphasised.
When the single market was created, the 30th anniversary of which will be celebrated in 2023, four areas were left out that, according to Letta, are fundamental: telecommunications, financial services, energy and defence. But the fragmentation of the European financial market, he said, “allows Wall Street to attract” European savings. This, he explained, creates the paradox that this money is going to “strengthen American industry” and its capacity to “acquire European companies”.
“Integrating financial markets means defending our savings,” the politician from the Democratic Party (left) insisted. Another example he gave was the purchase of military weapons to help Ukraine defend itself from Russian invasion with money from European taxpayers. 80% of these resources, he said, have been spent outside the EU and have helped create jobs “in Michigan.” [EE UU]“Türkiye or South Korea.”
In the report commissioned by the European Council, Letta recalls that the implementation of the measures he proposes requires the involvement of the Union institutions, the Member States, the social partners and the citizens. This is a request he reiterated on Tuesday in Madrid in view of the new legislature following the European elections in June.
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