To revive the European economy, Italian Mario Draghi recommends investing twice the amount of the Marshall Plan

The European Union has suffered an economic decline compared to the United States. To improve its competitiveness and fill this gap “ditch”the European Union should “continue to issue common debt instruments to finance common investment projects”estimated former Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi on Monday, September 9, in a highly anticipated report, citing as an example the success of the historic post-Covid recovery plan of 800 billion euros.

The EU has weathered the crisis caused by the pandemic in 2020 less well than the United States, as was already the case with the financial crisis of 2008. This drop can be explained “mainly due to the more marked slowdown in productivity in Europe” and represents a threat to its social model, stressed the former president of the European Central Bank during a press conference in Brussels (Belgium) in the presence of the president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen.

“The investment needs are enormous”hammered Mario Draghi. Insisting on the need for a “radical change” In the European approach, he presented some of his “170 proposals”. Among them, the idea of ​​issuing common debt again. According to him, the necessary investments represent more than twice the Marshall Plan ($13 billion at the time, or €150 billion today), which was used to revive the economy after World War II, Politico reports.

During his press conference, the Italian economist first highlighted the need to mobilise private capital to finance innovation through the creation of a genuine “Capital Markets Union”. “Real disposable income per capita has increased almost twice as much in the United States as in Europe since 2000”warned Mario Draghi. The report should inspire the work of the new European Commission for the next five years.