Draghi: This year the illusion evaporated that the EU is counting

Former Italian Prime Minister, former head of the European Central Bank Mario Draghi, on Friday, expressed the opinion that this year “evaporated illusion” as to the fact that the EU is in economic and geopolitical dimensions. In a speech, he also stated that the Union plays a marginal role in the matter of Ukraine.

In the speech in Rimini in the north of Italy during the 46th edition of the myth, organized by the Catholic Movement of Communion and Liberation, Draghi said: – For years the European Union believed that its economic dimension with 450 million consumers entails geopolitical power and in international trade relations.

– This year will be remembered as the one in which this illusion evaporated – said the economist, who headed the Italian government in 2021-2022.

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– We had to come to terms with the duties imposed by our greatest trading partner and the eternal ally – the United States. We were forced by the same ally to increase military expenses, i.e. to a decision that we would have to make, but it happened in a way that probably does not reflect the interests of Europe – he added.

Draghi estimated that “the European Union, despite the fact that it made the greatest financial contribution to the war in Ukraine and is most interested in a fair peace, has now played a fairly marginal role in peace negotiations.”

– At the same time, China openly supported Russia's war efforts, and European protests had a little effect. China said that they do not consider the Union an equivalent partner and use their control in the field of rare lands, so that our dependence is increasingly binding. (…) The Union was also a viewer when Iranian nuclear centers were bombarded and when the massacre in the Gaza Strip intensified – emphasized Mario Draghi.

In his opinion, these events deprived “all illusions that the economic dimension itself also guarantees some form of geopolitical power.”

– It is not surprising, therefore, that skepticism towards the European Union is reaching a new peak – he assessed.

He noticed that this skepticism mainly concerns the Union's ability to defend its values.

He warned that the destruction of European integration in order to return to national sovereignty would make the EU even more susceptible to “the will of great powers”.

– The world does not look at us with sympathy – admitted the former head of the European Central Bank.

He considered the presence of a group of European leaders in Washington as a positive sign on conversations with US Presidents Donald Trump and Ukraine Volodymyr Zelnski.

“It was an expression of unity, which in the eyes of citizens counts more than many meetings in Brussels,” said Draghi, who last year prepared a report on the European Commission on the competitiveness of the EU.

From Rome Sylwia Wysocka (PAP)

SW/ Kar/