His warning lands as Europe struggles with weak growth and a widening productivity gap with the U.S. Those pressures have been sharpened by U.S. President Donald Trump’s return to power, with Washington taking a more confrontational line on trade and security.
Draghi, a former Italian prime minister, returned to the EU’s political spotlight after presenting a blueprint in 2024 to reverse the bloc’s economic decline — a plan in which the annual spending price tag has since risen to €1.2 trillion to fulfill the recommendations.
“Every strategic dependence must now be re-examined,” he told the audience, which included German Chancellor Friedrich Merz; his own successor as ECB president, Christine Lagarde; and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, warning that “if openness remains our only answer, it becomes the absence of a decision.”
Draghi singled out artificial intelligence and defense as two critical areas where Europe must rapidly scale up investment, while also stressing that energy infrastructure is essential to both Europe’s competitiveness and security.
He also criticized Europe’s slow progress on that journey, lamenting that EU decision-making will often “dilute and delay” action until it falls short of what is needed.
“Weak delivery erodes legitimacy, and weak legitimacy makes delivery harder still. We must break that cycle,” he added.