Šefčovič: Balance is needed between climate goals and competitiveness

Brussels/Strasbourg – The former governor of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi, presented his report on Europe’s competitiveness at the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Tuesday (17. 9.). The report was also commented on by the Slovak Euro-commissioner Maroš Šefčovič, who will be responsible for trade and economic security in the new European Commission, according to TASR reporter.

Šefčovič stated that he had thoroughly examined Draghi’s report, which he considers to be very significant, and agrees with most of its conclusions.

“I believe that many of his ideas have been incorporated into the new structure of the Euro-commission, where a great emphasis is placed on economic portfolios, competitiveness, trade, and economic security. His alarming call that we must act very quickly and that our policies must be interconnected is very important. It will be crucial for the upcoming five-year period,” he said.

He emphasized that the Euro-commission will seek new balances between climate ambitions and economic policy. Because the EU wants to be carbon neutral by 2050, but it wants to do so in a way that does not affect its competitiveness and does not lead to deindustrialization; on the contrary, it promotes reindustrialization.

“In order to create such working conditions, but also conditions for trade, which will be my task, so that investors come to Europe to invest, to invest in new technology fields, and thereby strengthen the EU’s competitiveness,” explained Šefčovič.

He confirmed that Draghi’s report is negative regarding the current state of the Union’s competitiveness, especially in relation to strong players like the USA and China, but there is “light at the end of the tunnel.”

“I see it, for example, in the overall education system. Europeans continue to have the most educated and largest workforce in the world, we have the highest quality infrastructure, we have high-quality research institutions. However, our problem is that we have not learned to mobilize enough capital for the projects that come out of laboratories and should go into the commercial phase. So that they develop in Europe and not have to seek investors in the USA, so that it is not advantageous for young startups to be bought by some Chinese entrepreneurs,” he described the situation.

According to him, this situation needs to change, and he therefore understands Draghi’s emphasis that the European economy needs to be injected with a new 800 billion euros in the form of investments and that the capital markets union needs to be developed, which will create additional necessary resources for the Union.

“Every year, over 200 to 300 billion euros leave European banks in the form of investments to the United States simply because they cannot find adequate investment projects directly in the EU. We have the largest savings in banks, but the profit from those savings is transferred overseas. We need to find a way to make the capital and investment market attractive so that the money of European citizens and savers is invested primarily in European projects,” he pointed out at the end of the interview. (September 18)