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Draghi report and Bulgaria's prospects

UPDATED Experts' Take of Mario Draghi's Report on EU Competitiveness: Europe Needs Dramatic Changes

Antoan Nikolov
Experts' Take of Mario Draghi's Report on EU Competitiveness: Europe Needs Dramatic Changes
Experts' Take of Mario Draghi's Report on EU Competitiveness: Europe Needs Dramatic Changes
Аn expert discussion on "Draghi Report: the new economic policy of the EU and the prospects for Bulgaria", Sofia, October 22, 2024 (BTA Photo/Nikola Uzunov)
Sofia,  
22.10.2024 17:16 | UPDATED 22.10.2024 18:36
 (BTA)

As experts came together in Sofia Tuesday to discuss the report by Mario Draghi on the EU competitiveness, they agreed that a key message was a need for change. Titled "The Draghi Report: the new economic policy of the EU and the prospects for Bulgaria", the discussion was organized by the Green Transition Forum and the Bulgarian Federation of Industrial Energy Consumers with support from dir.bg.

According to Sergei Stanishev, the prime minister of Bulgaria in 2005-2009, the bottom line of Mario Draghi's report is that in order to survive, Europe needs to go through radical changes. Stanishev was also a MEP (2014-2024) and President of the Party of European Socialists (2012-2021). 

"The Draghi report says that Europe is losing the competition to the US and China. It is clear that the world is changing dramatically and fast, and Europe needs to change, too," said the former Prime Minister.

He spoke of the new sources of fast growth: high-tech, digitization and artificial intelligence, where Europe is lagging behind. "Also, trade is dramatically changing, from open to increasingly closed," he said.

Stanishev argued that it takes too long to change a law in Europe: an average of 20 months or even longer for more serious issues. "That puts us at a disadvantage compared to the US - not to mention China," he said. 

Former environment minister Julian Popov said that it is essential for the local industries to formulate their views and ideas for the development, which they believe need to become part of the Bulgarian industrial strategy, and communicate them with the next government. "Draghi proposes a strategy for industrial development of Europe but he says nothing new. The report essentially says that the king is naked but all know that: Europe is not competitive and lagging farther behind. But the picture is not as gloomy as the Facebook sages love to present it: that Europe is falling apart. No, it is not. Europe is very strong and resilient, the war in Ukraine has shown how united Europe can be but it largely stands tall thanks to its industry," said Popov.

He argued further that the report does not call for stepping down from the Green Deal and the decarbonization goals. "It is a framework that we need to work in, and Europe should reply for its competitiveness on the technologies connected with decarbonization: batteries, electrical mobility, renewable energy, new processes that replace fossil fuel," said the former Environment Minister. 

Svetla Kostadinova, Executive Director of the Institute of Market Economics, said that the report says nothing about the rule of law issue, which is an universal issue for all of Eastern Europe. She also said that the free economies are faster to decarbonize and do it cheaper, than the monopolist markets.

Commenting Europe's economic lagging behind the US, Ivan Mihaylov, Executive Director of the American Chamber of Commerce in Bulgaria, said that one factor is excessive regulation in Europe which affects adversely businesses. "Europe is not competitive and nobody analyzes how effective the policies are: just new ones are produced. As a new policy gets adopted, they don't think whether the effect would be a more competitive Europe. The US are becoming more attractive and we remain with our regulations, decreasing  and more expensive workforce, which is also increasingly inefficient in Bulgaria, as we hope for a miracle to happen. But the miracle won't happen unless everybody does something to address this issue," said Mihaylov. 

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