'EU needs radical change' - Draghi

(ANSA) - ROME, SEP 9 - Former Prime Minister and central banker Mario Draghi on Monday released a report on EU competitiveness stating that, "if the political and institutional conditions are present, the EU should continue - based on the model of NextGenerationEU - to issue common debt tools, which would be used to fund joint investment projects aimed at increasing competitiveness and security" in Europe.
    "The financial need necessary for the EU to reach its objectives is huge" and to reach the goals outlined in the Draghi report "at least 750-800 billion euros are necessary in additional annual investments, according to estimates of the Commission, worth 4. 4-4.7% of the EU's GDP in 2023", the report said.
    "To make a comparison, the Marshall Plan's investments in the 1948-51 period were the equivalent of 1-2% of the EU's GDP", noted the report.
    Overall, the report stressed that "the fundamental values of Europe are prosperity, equity, freedom, peace and democracy in a sustainable environment.
    "The EU exists to guarantee that Europeans can always benefit from these fundamental rights.
    "If Europe will not be able to guarantee them anymore, it will lose its reason to exist.
    "The only way to deal with this challenge is to grow and become more productive, preserving our values of equity and social inclusion.
    "The only way to become more productive is for Europe to radically change", Draghi wrote in the introduction.
    Productivity, Draghi stressed, "is an existential challenge for the EU'.
    Another issue outlined by the report is the need to extend qualified majority voting to "more areas, also calling for - in cases of an impasse - "strengthened cooperation" "So far, many efforts to deepen European integration between member States have been hindered by the unanimous vote", it explained.
    Also, speaking about research and development in the defence sector, the Draghi report recommended to "increase European funding" and concentrate it on "common initiatives".
    This approach could be developed through "new dual-use programs and a proposal of European defence programs of common interest" to organize the necessary industrial cooperation.
    "No member State can fund, develop, produce and support effectively all the necessary capabilities and infrastructures to maintain leadership" in today's most advanced technologies, the report noted. (ANSA).