The President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola welcomed Mario Draghi to the Plenary Session, to discuss the future of Europe's competitiveness. "No one should be left behind in Europe," she emphasised in her introduction.
Dear Colleagues,
With us today we have former Prime Minister of Italy and President of the European Central Bank, Mr Mario Draghi, to present his report to us on the Future of European Competitiveness.
Mr Draghi, caro Mario, welcome to the European Parliament.
As we embark on a new term, your report comes at a crucial time in our discussions. We need to turn the electoral messages our voters sent us into a political programme. One that is serious, deliverable and implementable.
For it to be serious: it must help our industries in their digital and green transformation - incorporating every sector - to enable faster economic growth, quality jobs and a strong industrial base capable of competing globally.
For it to be deliverable: it must create the right conditions and frameworks for our start-ups and SMEs to grow and stay in Europe. This means increasing productivity, innovation and speeding-up investments in own industrial capabilities; it means reducing excessive bureaucracy, which risks holding us back. It also means that we need to deepen our Single Market, and ensure a level playing field through an integrated policy approach.
And for our programme to be implementable: we all need to work together on how to finance these needs.
Above all, we need to invest in our citizens. In order to face the challenges of the digital age and fully benefit from the green transition, we need to equip ourselves with the necessary skills. By focusing on education, we will place citizens at the centre of our policies. When it comes to making progress on all the policies, no one should be left behind. We cannot allow ourselves, our citizens, to lose out.
Mr Draghi, the European Parliament is eager to listen to your proposals on how we can bring Europe a little bit closer to how our people want it to be; to make their lives easier, our shared space safer and our Europe better, stronger and fairer for all Europeans. The floor is now yours.