ROME (Reuters) – Former Italian Prime Minister and ex-president of the European Central Bank (ECB), Mario Draghi, will advise the European Union (EU) on improving the competitiveness of its economy during the energy transition , declared the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.
Mario Draghi, 76, is seen by some as the savior of the euro for having reassured markets by promising to do “whatever it takes” in 2012 to support the bloc in the midst of a sovereign debt crisis. He then chaired the ECB, a role he held until 2019.
The EU must look to the future and define how to tackle inflation to address labor shortages and boost economic growth, while asking industry to lead the transition to a clean economy, Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday in her annual State of the Union speech to the European Parliament in Strasbourg.
“This is why I asked Mario Draghi, one of Europe’s greatest economists, to prepare a report on the future of European competitiveness. Because Europe will do whatever it takes to maintain its advantage competitive,” she said.
A source familiar with the matter said the former ECB president had accepted the job and was “very interested in the subject”.
The report should be submitted next June or July, depending on the source.
Mario Draghi, who served as President of the Italian Council from February 2021 to October 2022, led a unity government that overcame the COVID-19 crisis and the turbulence caused by the invasion of Ukraine by Russia.
He has repeatedly called for an EU fiscal union.
“Creating a closer union will ultimately prove the only way to deliver the security and prosperity that Europe’s citizens want,” he wrote last week in The magazine. Economist.
(Report by Giselda Vagnoni; French version Nathan Vifflin, edited by Blandine Hénault)
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