Lionel Laurent, Columnist

Mario Draghi’s Back — With a Lot of Work to Do

A ‘whatever it takes’ approach to changing Europe's economic fortunes is exactly what's needed.

Ritorno?

Photographer: Thomas Lohnes/Getty Images Europe
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There’s a case to be made that the biggest piece of news in European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s State of the Union speech last week was not the opening of a probe into Chinese electric-vehicle subsidies, but the appointment of Mario Draghi to prepare a report on the 27-nation bloc’s competitiveness.

If anyone else had been picked to do it, one might imagine the result being a tome packed with pleas to invest in research, adopt more efficient technology and integrate the EU’s capital markets — something destined to gather dust on a shelf somewhere. The fact that it’s Draghi suggests something more is going on.