Speakers
Objectives
Europe’s productivity has been lagging behind other major economies over the last 20 years. That is why, in the November 2024 Budapest declaration, EU leaders stressed the urgency of implementing a new European competitiveness deal, anchored in a fully integrated single market. Following up on the leaders’ request, in January 2025 the European Commission presented the competitiveness compass. The compass is based on the recommendations made by Mario Draghi in his report on the future of European competitiveness. The aim of the compass is to make business easier and faster and ensure Europe’s prosperity. The compass guides the Commission’s work for the 2024-2029 period on the basis of three pillars: (i) closing the innovation gap with the EU’s main competitors; (ii) linking decarbonisation and competitiveness; (iii) reducing dependencies and increasing security. Several action programmes have been presented by the Commission since last month. For the first time since the Second World War, Germany has recently adopted a massive plan to invest hundreds of billions of euros in energy, defence and infrastructure. A paradigm shift that runs counter to the philosophy of ‘curbing the debt’ and controlling the deficit. The session will focus firstly on the key economic policy measures that the main Member States need to take to improve their competitiveness – bearing in mind that strong States make for a stronger Europe – and secondly on the priority actions that the European institutions need to take to contribute to this improvement in the competitiveness of our continent.
Points of discussion
- What should be the key domestic policy priorities for improving the competitiveness of the main Member States?
- What priorities should European institutions (EU Commission, Council, ECB…) set to increase private investment, make better use of public funds and channel Europeans’ savings effectively into productive investment?