Mario Draghi tried to put his call for massive investment in competitiveness on hold at a conference at the Bruegel think-tank on Monday 30 September. Questioned from all sides about his proposal to make further use of the common debt, he relativised the importance of this part compared to his report as a whole. “As much as I like this concept, it’s not an essential ingredient in this report”, he said, before explaining why he was suggesting the use of a common debt rather than an increase in the EU budget.
Mr Draghi also explained the €800 billion of investment needed, in his opinion. He also pointed out that the calculation method was “conservative” and that the actual needs would be much greater.
However, his message at the conference was that the EU had a lot of work to do to increase its productivity and strengthen its Internal market. In this way, it will be able to keep its businesses in its territory, enable them to grow and attract as much private funding as possible. “If we are quick to reform the single market structure and integrate it well and soon, the amount of public funding will be shortened a lot”, he explained.
Later, also on 30 September, the members of the European Parliament’s Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) debated the report on the future of European competitiveness, although without its author, who had already appeared before the European Parliament in Strasbourg on 17 September (see EUROPE 13484/7).
As with the report, MEPs’ comments were wide-ranging and diverse, but the subject of reducing the administrative burden was the one that came up most often in the discussion. It is clear to the Renew Europe, EPP, PfE and ECR groups that businesses are bearing the brunt of an administrative and regulatory burden that is sometimes too heavy, compared with their Chinese or American competitors. Most of the members of these groups called for urgent reflection on this issue.
“We need to look at the extra rules we add on. There is no doubt that we need rules, but we can also look at how we make these rules”, suggested Christel Schaldemose (S&D, Danish).
Her group, as well as the Greens/EFA and The Left groups, generally want to be more cautious on this issue. Some MEPs from these ranks warned against weakening the existing rules, which they say protect both consumers and businesses. (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)