EditDraghi stirs the EU’s nest: a call for geopolitical awakening at Rimini meeting
On the defensive, von der Leyen fires back, defending the Commission's trade strategy against the critique of the former ECB chief
Europe can no longer afford to remain a spectator in world affairs, Mario Draghi warned in a opening speech at the Rimini meeting, one of the most important event in the Italian political calendar, arguing the European Union has to reinvent itself as a global leader.
The former ECB president and Italian PM said the illusion that Europe’s economic weight would guarantee geopolitical power collapsed this year, when the bloc was forced to accept tariffs from its closest ally, the United States.
Last year, he presented the famous Draghi plan – a document with a concept ideas to ramp up the EU’s economic growth, underlining the necessity to adapt if the bloc is to survive.
“For years, the European Union believed that its economic size, with 450 million consumers, brought with it geopolitical power and influence in international trade relations. This year will be remembered as the year in which this illusion evaporated”, Draghi commented.
Europe has been pressured into raising defence spending and marginalised in efforts to secure peace in Ukraine, he added. At the same time, China has expanded its industrial dominance and treated Europe not as a partner but as a subordinate, leveraging control of critical resources. Events in Gaza and Iran, Draghi noted, further revealed Europe’s weakness as a global actor.
“Economics alone cannot ensure geopolitical power,” he said, adding that the real source of scepticism among citizens lies not in Europe’s values, but in its ability to defend them.
Draghi traced the Union’s history as an evolving response to crises: born from the failure of nation states to preserve peace, strengthened in the neoliberal era through integration of markets, and forced once again today to confront a radically changed environment. Where open markets once shaped global order, now industrial policy, military power, and resource security dominate. Europe, he warned, is ill-equipped for this shift unless it adapts.
National retrenchment, he stressed, would only leave member states more exposed to the will of global powers. Instead, the EU must recognise that past successes cannot be projected into the future. Economic strength is necessary but insufficient for geopolitical weight, and Europe must draw the political conclusions.
Draghi singled out two areas where Europe must act with urgency: deepening the single market and investing at scale in strategic technologies.
Removing internal barriers could raise productivity significantly, while fragmented national approaches in sectors such as semiconductors leave Europe falling behind. “No European country alone has the resources to build the industrial capacity required,” he said, insisting on joint financing and shared sovereignty in critical fields.
He argued that common debt should again be mobilised for “good” investments – in defence, energy networks, and disruptive technologies, where isolated national projects cannot reach the scale required. Without such collective tools, Europe risks strategic irrelevance.
Draghi acknowledged Europe’s capacity to adapt in emergencies, citing its unity during the pandemic and in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But he urged governments to act with the same decisiveness in normal times. The continent’s future, he insisted, depends on whether its leaders and citizens can summon the political will to renew integration and reclaim Europe’s role on the global stage.
“Turn your scepticism into action,” Draghi told his audience. “The European Union is our best chance for a future of peace, security and independence. It is a democracy – and it is us, its citizens, who must decide its priorities.”
Von der Leyen on the defensive
European commission president Ursula von deer Leyen reiterated that the agreement on tariffs between the EU and the US was a ‘conscious decision’ that avoided a trade war.
The Commission president took the unusual step to intervene with an article on Sunday in several European newspapers, including the Italian IlSole24ore and the German Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, which indirectly provides a response to the Draghi criticism of the EU’s “absence” on duties and wars made by former ECB chief and Italian PM Mario Draghi on Friday.
“Much has been written about this agreement, considerations that deserve a direct response,” von der Leyen argued in the Italian newspaper, “imagine for a moment if the two largest economies in the democratic world had failed to reach an agreement and had started a trade war. This would have been celebrated only in Moscow and Beijing”.
Regarding the 15% cap on US tariffs on a range of products – from cars to pharmaceuticals, from semiconductors to timber – the Commission leader spoke of a “good, if not perfect agreement”, while recalling how tariffs are “taxes that burden consumers and businesses”, increasing “costs, reduce choice and undermine the competitiveness of economies”.
The agreement with the Trump administration also grants other trade guarantees to Europe, continued von der Leyen, who assured however how the EU is seeking to diversify its export markets.
“We have recently concluded trade agreements with Mexico and Mercosur and deepened relations with Switzerland and the UK. And we have concluded our talks with Indonesia and aim to reach an agreement with India by the end of the year”, wrote the president.
In conclusion, Ursula von der Leyen called for a “strong and independent” Europe, urging it to “complete the single market” and “strengthen competitiveness and sustainability”.
Caption: Former Italian prime minister and former European Central Bank (ECB) president Mario Draghi attends the ISPI Award 2024, Milan, Italy, 09 December 2024. The award is dedicated to personalities who have contributed to strengthening Italy’s image in the world. EPA/DANIEL DAL ZENNARO
Updated: August 25, 2025 - 13:38
