DRAGHI SPEAKS ABOUT THE FUTURE IN A EUROPE STILL THINKING IN THE PAST, Francesco Mancini

A political proposal for the creation of the United States of Europe

Abstract: In his speech on September 16th, 2025, Mario Draghi urged Europe to act with speed and unity, denouncing bureaucratic inertia and political paralysis that hinder the EU’s growth and competitiveness. He called for annual investments of €1.2 trillion, reforms in technology, energy, and defense, and a more federal and pragmatic Europe based on coalitions of willing states. His warning was clear: inaction is itself a political choice that endangers the Union’s sovereignty and future.

Keywords: #MarioDraghi #DraghiReport #EU #EuropeanUnion #competitiveness #economicgrowth #sovereignty #reforms #Europeanintegration #Europeanfederalism #coalitionsofthewilling #industrialpolicy #artificialintelligence #energytransition #Europeandefense #investment #EUgovernance #bureaucracy #UrsulavonderLeyen #geopolitics #digitaleconomy #FrancescoMancini #EthicaSocietas #EthicaSocietasJournal #scientificjournal #politicalscience #socialsciences #EthicaSocietasUpli

italian version

ONE YEAR AFTER THE DRAGHI REPORT

On September 16, 2025, one year after the publication of his report, Mario Draghi spoke before European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at the conference “One Year After the Draghi Report.”

It was a lucid and resolute speech in which he criticized European inaction and bureaucratic slowness, urging greater speed, scale, and intensity in addressing geopolitical and economic challenges. Draghi called for reforms and investments essential to restoring the Union’s competitiveness and sovereignty.

He warned that the European Union is losing ground in global competitiveness, suffering from weak growth, slow reforms, and a widening gap with the United States and China. He emphasized the need for far greater investment — about €1.2 trillion per year between 2025 and 2031, compared to the previously estimated €800 billion. The key critical areas he highlighted were technology and artificial intelligence, energy dependencies, industrial competitiveness, and, above all, the governance of the single market.

THE POLITICAL CALL

As Bank of Italy Governor Fabio Panetta had already stated the previous year and Draghi himself in his speech at Rimini Meeting, Europe must continue along the path of centralization, countering old nationalisms and parochialism. Draghi called for a new form of pragmatic federalism, based on “coalitions of the willing” — groups of countries sharing common goals — rather than expecting all member states to move at the same pace.

Inaction, he warned, is itself a political choice. The risk for Europe is not only economic but also strategic and political: if the EU fails to respond with concrete reforms, it faces the danger of losing sovereignty, global influence, and its ability to protect its citizens.

THE SPEECH TEXT

High Level Conference – One year after the Draghi report: what has been achieved, what has changed

One year ago, we met here to discuss three challenges set out in the report:

Europe’s growth model had long been under strain; dependencies threatened its resilience; and without faster growth, Europe would be unable to deliver on its climate, digital and security ambitions — not to mention finance its ageing societies.

Over the past year, each of these challenges has grown more acute.

The foundations of Europe’s growth — expanding world trade and high-value exports — have weakened further.

The US has imposed its highest tariffs since the Smoot-Hawley era.

China has become an even stronger competitor, both in third markets and, as US tariffs divert flows, inside Europe itself. Since December last year, China’s trade surplus with the EU has risen by almost 20%.

We have also seen how Europe’s ability to respond is limited by its dependencies — even when our economic weight is considerable. Reliance on the US for defence was quoted as one of the reasons we had to accept a trade deal largely on American terms. Dependence on Chinese critical materials has curtailed our ability to prevent China’s overcapacity from flooding Europe, or to counter its support for Russia.

Europe has begun to respond. Since the US absorbs around three-quarters of the global current account deficit, diversifying away from its market is unrealistic in the short term. But the Mercosur deal with Latin America can offer some relief for exporters. The Commission has launched strategic projects for critical raw materials. And defence spending is rising sharply.

These defence commitments, however, add to already vast financing needs. The ECB now puts annual investment requirements for 2025–31 at nearly €1,200 billion, up from €800 billion a year ago. The public share has almost doubled, from 24% to 43% — an extra €510 billion a year, as defence is mainly publicly funded.

Fiscal space is scarce. Even without this new spending, EU public debt is set to rise by 10 percentage points over the next decade, reaching 93% of GDP — on growth assumptions more optimistic than today’s reality.

Europe’s Crossroads

One year on, Europe is therefore in a harder place.

Our growth model is fading. Vulnerabilities are mounting.

And there is no clear path to finance the investments we need.

And we have been reminded, painfully, that inaction threatens not only our competitiveness but our sovereignty itself.

The report set out three priorities for Europe:

closing the innovation gap in advanced technologies;
charting a decarbonisation path that supports growth;
strengthening economic security.

As President von der Leyen has underlined, these are also at the heart of the Commission’s agenda. I welcome her decision to place competitiveness at the centre, and the programme is ambitious.

Europe’s citizens and companies value the diagnosis, the clear priorities and the action plans.

But they also express growing frustration.

They are disappointed by how slowly the EU moves.

They see us failing to match the speed of change elsewhere.

They are ready to act — but fear governments have not grasped the gravity of the moment.

Too often, excuses are made for this slowness. We say it is simply how the EU is built. That a complex process with many actors must be respected. Sometimes inertia is even presented as respect for the rule of law.

That is complacency. Competitors in the US and China are far less constrained, even when acting within the law. To carry on as usual is to resign ourselves to falling behind.

A different path demands new speed, scale and intensity.

It means acting together, not fragmenting our efforts.

It means focusing resources where impact is greatest.

And it means delivering results within months, not years.

Technology First

AI is often called a “transformational” technology, like electricity 140 years ago. But it depends on the orchestration of at least four other technologies:

cloud to store vast data,
supercomputing to process that data,
cybersecurity to protect sensitive sectors,
advanced networks — 5G, fibre and satellites — for transmission.

In some areas, Europe shows progress:

Plans are underway for at least five AI gigafactories, each with more than 100,000 advanced GPUs. Data-centre capacity is set to triple over the next seven years. A major telecoms reform is expected by year end.

Yet the gaps are stark: in 2024, the US produced 40 large AI foundation models, China 15, and the EU only 3. Among SMEs, AI adoption ranges from 13% to 21%.

And in the most strategic field — AI based on European intellectual property — progress is minimal.

Three urgent actions are needed:

Remove barriers to scaling up new technologies, creating a “28th regime” where innovative firms can operate seamlessly across all 27 member states.
Simplify regulation, especially the GDPR, which raises the cost of data by around 20% for EU firms.
Integrate AI into industry, leveraging Europe’s leadership in industrial automation.

Energy and Transition

Natural gas prices in the EU are nearly four times higher than in the US; industrial power prices are more than double.

Without narrowing this gap, the transition to a high-tech economy will stall.

Decarbonisation remains the best long-term path to energy independence.

But it requires faster investment in grids, interconnectors, and clean base-load generation such as nuclear.

Draghi proposes collective EU gas purchases, greater transparency in energy trading, and decoupling renewable and nuclear energy pricing from fossil generation.

Industrial and Defence Policy

The line between economy and security is increasingly blurred.

Europe must strengthen its capacity in defence, heavy industry, and future technologies.

Three strategic levers:

Coordinate state aid to prevent protectionist fragmentation.
Use public procurement — 14% of EU GDP — to stimulate innovation and strategic sectors.
Revise competition policy to support consolidation and cooperation in defence and space industries.

Governance and the Future of the EU

The EU must act with greater speed where it already has powers, and reform where it does not.

In key areas, Europe must behave less like a confederation and more like a federation.

Meanwhile, coalitions of willing states could share projects and resources — even issuing joint debt for common goals such as innovation, defence, and energy.

“The rest of the world has already broken its taboos.

For Europe’s survival, we must do what has never been done before.”

“Europe’s citizens are asking their leaders to look beyond daily concerns and recognise the scale of the challenge.

Only unity of intent and urgency of action will prove that we are ready to meet extraordinary times with extraordinary action.”

Download original speech text