The European Union needs common debt
to finance rearmament and a chain of command above its national
armed forces after the changes in United States policy adopted
under President Donald Trump put its security in doubt,
ex-premier and former European Central Bank President Mario
Draghi told the Senate on Tuesday.
"Our security has been put into doubt by the change in the
foreign policy of our biggest ally with respect to Russia,
which, with the invasion of Ukraine, has shown itself to be a
real threat to Europe," said Draghi, who is the special advisor
to EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on
competitiveness.
"The direction of the new US administration has dramatically
reduced the time available.
"The EU is now more alone in international fora.
"Our prosperity, already threatened by low growth for many
years, was based on an order of international relations and
trade that has now been upset by the protectionist policies of
the United States: tariffs will have a strong impact on Italian
and European companies".
He said it was "obligatory" for Europe to develop a common
defence "in order to best use the technologies that will have to
guarantee our security.
"Narrow budget spaces do not allow some countries to
significantly expand their deficits, so the use of common debt
is the only way," Draghi continued as he presented the report be
prepared for the Commission on boosting EU competitiveness.
"National interventions at the expense of social and health
spending would be the negation of the European identity that we
want to protect by defending ourselves from the threat of
autocracy".
Draghi also called for "a higher level chain of command that
coordinates" the EU's "heterogeneous armies" and that "is able
to detach itself from national priorities by operating as a
continental defense system.
"Current European defense procurement, equal to approximately
110 billion euros in 2023, should be concentrated on a few
advanced platforms instead of on numerous national platforms,"
he concluded. ari dagli Stati Uniti.
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