The Draghi Report 'To Save Europe': Late, Confused but with Important Findings
by Drieu Godefridi • November 13, 2024 at 5:00 am
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen... postponed publication of [Mario] Draghi's report until the day after her reappointment -- yet another illustration of the intractably anti-democratic nature of the unelected, untransparent, unaccountable and unable-to-be-removed European institutions.
The remedies proposed by Draghi are... a "targeted" industrial policy, tax cuts here and administrative simplification there. And extra EU spending of "only" €800 billion ($857 billion) a year!
European businesses are regressing because they are being slashed by taxes, tormented by a thousand constantly changing regulations, and are paying between two and ten times more for energy than their global competitors -- fatal for 100% of European industry...
[F]orcing businesses and families to opt for more expensive energy sources... does not create any "opportunities", apart from... "windfall effects" for the recipients of public subsidies. They only create a further worsening of the overall economic situation.
[I]n another report published recently under the aegis of the same European Commission, it was acknowledged that the EU's starry-eyed energy transition objectives -- "zero carbon" by 2050 -- would require a whopping €1.5 trillion a year for 20 years. Whatever the verbal packaging, this bagatelle has a cost that will put a strain on European businesses and impoverish European households.
If we stick to the findings of Draghi's report, however, getting the EU out of its rut is possible, but presupposes the following measures: 1) a drastic reduction in the overall tax burden on businesses (and households), 2) a drastic simplification of European law, which ultimately paralyses and kills initiative, 3) abandoning the authoritarian energy transition in favor of voluntary diversification of the energy mix, and 4) giving innovative entrepreneurs enticing incentives: fighting not their national neighbors but their global competitors.
Draghi's report proposes an initiative which, while not new, should be implemented without delay: the creation of a European legal vehicle enabling European entrepreneurs to tackle the entire European market head-on, such as introducing a new EU-wide statute for innovative ventures... This simple measure, coupled with administrative simplification, would be consistent with the founding spirit of the European Economic Community, which is the EU common market.
On the whole, Draghi's report seems worth more for the accuracy of its findings than for the practicality of its recommendations.
"The future of European competitiveness," a report by former Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi published by the European Commission on September 9 "to save the European economy," has been unanimously welcomed by the European media, as likely to propel the European Union out of the nasty rut it has been in for 20 years.
Let us humbly offer a dissenting opinion: it does not seem that Draghi's report, even if implemented -- which is doubtful -- will solve anything on a European macroeconomic scale. The problem seems that Draghi refuses to take leave of the Germano-environmentalist myth of a zero-carbon Europe.
