“We all want the society that Europe promised us, a society in which we can uphold our values regardless of how the world around us changes. But we do not have an immutable right for our society to always remain as we want it. We will have to fight to keep it’ (Mario Draghi)

Mario Draghi returns to the scene with a loud and clear message: Europe cannot afford to slow down. Speaking in Paris at the Annual Symposium of the Centre for Economic Policy Research, the former prime minister and ECB president appealed for Europe to take its destiny back into its own hands. No more wavering, it is time for action.

For Draghi, the risk is enormous: a European Union that, in 25 years’ time, will find itself with the same GDP as today, but out-of-control public costs and a widening gap with the global giants.

The ‘export-low wages’ model is obsolete. Growth must be unlocked with targeted investments and bold reforms. The former tenant of the Eurotower points to the single market and the capital market, two engines that have been stuck in the doldrums for too long.“Without structural reforms, the future of Europe will be stagnation and decline,” he warns.

The global picture does not help. China is slowing down, but its companies are growing in competitiveness. The US, under the new administration, is less and less willing to act as a buyer of last resort for Europe. Draghi is clear: ‘The US is rebalancing global demand.This is a wake-up call for us‘.

What to do? Invest. And immediately. The former Italian prime minister speaks of impressive figures: EUR 800 billion for energy transition, digital and defence. To find them, new strategies and a strong public-private partnership are needed.

The idea of a common European debt emerges, but Draghi warns: it is not yet time. Reforms first. ‘We cannot think about common debt without having already set in motion structural changes to increase our growth potential,’ he explains.

In the meantime, however, Europe has a unique opportunity: to take advantage of the adjustment period under the EU’s new fiscal rules, which guarantee member states a gradual transition to tighter budgetary constraints. This seven-year period would free up up to EUR 700 billion of fiscal space for public investment. Draghi emphasises that this margin represents a significant slice of the resource requirements needed to address structural challenges and support growth.

“This is an opportunity that should not be wasted,” Super Mario further insists, “because it allows immediate investment without waiting for complex reforms or new political decisions on common debt.”

Draghi ends the speech with a clear vision: less wage compression, more retraining of the workforce. Flexibility is not enough, skills are needed. It is not enough to resist, we need to innovate.

Let us add: more innovation also means less regulation. We may not like Elon Musk ‘s provocative sorties against the European Commission, which he describes as a ‘monument to bureaucracy’, but it must be assumed with intellectual honesty that in recent decades the European public decision-maker has been under the illusion that regulations make innovation, in the environmental, technological and industrial fields, unfortunately leaving others – from the United States to the Far East – to gain the frontier of innovation.

Europe needs an ambitious plan, a common vision. And above all, action. ‘We cannot stand still while the rest of the world runs‘.

An appeal that leaves no room for excuses: the time to choose is now. Reforms or decline. Investment or stagnation. Europe has the chance to rewrite its history. But it must do so quickly. A political manifesto because it reminds us that Europe is not an acquired right, but an ongoing construction. We cannot just defend what we are: to protect our values, we must lead change instead of undergoing it.

When he states that ‘wedo not have an immutable right for our society to always remain as we wish it to be‘, Mario Draghi invites us to abandon immobilism and choose a Europe that grows and innovates, capable of facing global challenges and reforming to remain true to its principles. Change to preserve what makes Europe unique.