EU must tackle China, US threats without being protectionist: Draghi

Italian prime minister delivered the strong message just weeks after warning in a report that Europe faced ‘existential’ challenges

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Mario Draghi, former Italian prime minister. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 2:51am, 1 Oct 2024Updated: 3:00am, 1 Oct 2024

The European Union must defend itself against the challenges from China and the United States without resorting to protectionism, former Italian prime minister Mario Draghi said on Monday.

Draghi, also the former head of the European Central Bank, delivered the strong message just weeks after warning in a much-anticipated report that Europe faced “existential” challenges.

EU chief Ursula von der Leyen last year asked Draghi to report back on how the 27-country bloc could boost its competitiveness amid increasing global insecurity and economic challenges.

Draghi is now working to ensure his warnings are heeded by EU policymakers.

“The European Union is an open economy, and it’s more open than anybody else. Fifty per cent of our GDP comes from trade, versus something like 37 per cent in China, 27 per cent in the United States,” Draghi said.

“We are different from the United States. We cannot build a protectionist wall,” he told an event hosted by the Bruegel think-tank in Brussels.

“We cannot do it and we wouldn’t be able to do it even if we wanted to do it because we would harm ourselves.”