The echoes of the report by the former Italian Prime Minister and ex-head of the European Central Bank on EU competitiveness are still resonating. According to the former EU Commissioner for Budget and Financial Programming, Janusz Lewandowski, this represents both a challenge and an opportunity for the upcoming Polish EU presidency to increase funds for investment in the new EU budget for 2028-2034, especially in light of the nomination of the Pole, Piotr Serafin, as commissioner for budget matters.
“The Polish presidency is coming, Commissioner Serafin is coming, and there is a lot in Draghi’s report about the EU budget and financing. We need to take this very seriously”, Lewandowski emphasized during an interview with Newseria Bizness. “It will not be easy, the report encapsulates the dream of recreating a unique ecosystem akin to Silicon Valley, where there are startups, innovative university youth from Berkeley or Stanford, finance ready to engage in the riskiest operations or the equally unique system of the other coast, Massachusetts, where all new companies are supported primarily by public, mostly military, orders. Draghi is clearly inspired by the eastern and western United States, trying to recreate a similar unique ecosystem in Europe, so far this has not been successful.”
The report, produced after a year’s work commissioned by the European Commission, presents a rather unfavorable diagnosis of EU competitiveness compared with the US and China. It suggests increasing the common budget in response to challenges related to demography, overregulation, and protectionism. The result is stagnation in most Old Continent economies, especially in Italy and France. The former Italian Prime Minister believes Europe faces a slow demise unless it fights to invest in and create conditions for the development of modern technologies.
The main conclusion suggests that the EU needs an additional 800 billion euros annually to ensure economic growth. According to the authors, this could be secured, in part, by issuing a common European debt.
“Mario Draghi is ready to further indebt the European Union, which is not agreed upon by Germany and several other countries that are net payers. I hope this will facilitate the increase in the budget for the Commissioner for Budget Affairs, who will present the budget in June-July next year for the years after 2027,” Janusz Lewandowski, who held this position from 2010 to 2014, remarks.
Following Draghi’s report, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen presented the division of European commissioner roles for her second term. It will commence in November 2024, coinciding with the beginning of the second Polish presidency in the EU Council. Polish politician Piotr Serafin will be responsible for budget, anti-fraud, and public administration matters.
According to Vice Minister of Development and Technology Ignacy Niemczycki, Poland supports Mario Draghi’s call to increase the European budget. However, Draghi’s proposition to issue a common debt has been met with skepticism by some countries. Niemczycki prefers to talk about mobilizing private funds along the American lines. Lewandowski believes Poland should not fear using common instruments.
“We will handle this. Poland has already used programs like JEREMIE and JESSICA and has been very cunning in using financial instruments. We are prepared at the regional and national levels, other countries less so, but we are ready for budget leveraging. We’ll manage”, Lewandowski assures.
