Former Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta tells POLITICO that government subsidies should become a “European tool.”
It’s older than the euro and as integral to the EU as being able to cross borders without a passport ― but the single market is failing to deliver while ever-stronger world economies gain the upper hand.
Enrico Letta, a former Italian prime minister who will hand his report on the issue to EU leaders at their summit in Brussels on Thursday, told POLITICO the bloc needed to be “less naïve” if Europe was going to be robust enough in the years ahead.
“I strongly think that we need to create a single market with teeth," he said. “This is the key point: a single market with teeth.”
The network of the EU’s 27 countries, and a few neighboring nations beside, is supposed to allow the free movement of goods, services, people and capital, and came into being in 1993. While seen as one of the EU’s greatest achievements, politicians still lament the ways it doesn’t work. With the EU confronted by pressure to remain competitive in the face of emerging powers such as India and China, that needs to change.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
BRUSSELS ― It’s older than the euro and as integral to the EU as being able to cross borders without a passport ― but the single market is failing to deliver while ever-stronger world economies gain the upper hand.
Enrico Letta, a former Italian prime minister who will hand his report on the issue to EU leaders at their summit in Brussels on Thursday, told POLITICO the bloc needed to be “less naïve” if Europe was going to be robust enough in the years ahead.
In typical EU style, Letta’s report is one of two significant studies written by former Italian prime ministers on similar subjects at the same time.
In his report, Letta suggests there should be wider use of EU laws that governments must apply to the letter — rather than being able to make changes to them, which can lead to a confusing patchwork of requirements.
The former prime minister said he also wants to build on the Important Projects of Common European Interest model which combines national subsidies to boost key technologies, and an Enlargement Solidarity Facility to facilitate a smooth EU entry for new members.
One of Letta’s advisers said he is supportive of defense bonds, already touted by internal market chief Thierry Breton and Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas.
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