What We're Watching

“Super Mario” wants to level up Europe against China

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen holds Former European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi's report on EU competitiveness and recommendations, as they attend a press conference, in Brussels, on Sept. 9, 2024.

REUTERS/Yves Herman
How can Europe compete in a world where the US and China, the globe’s two 800-pound gorillas, are increasingly at odds? By spending €800 billion a year to level up, says former Italian PM and European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi. On Monday, he published a report urging the EU to take urgent action to boost the competitiveness and security of Europe’s industries or risk falling behind the US and China for good. It’s ambitious, but Draghi is a man known for staring down the seemingly impossible (say: stabilizing Greece’s finances or Italy’s politics).

The central problem, Draghi says in his report, is that the EU lacks a “foreign economic policy” that aligns the continent’s trade agenda with geopolitical realities. The report highlights Europe’s dependence on China for critical minerals and warns that some 40% of European imports are vulnerable to geopolitics-related supply interruptions. Europe’s trade openness, arguably one of its greatest economic assets, also leaves it vulnerable to unfair Chinese practices, such as subsidizing producers who can then undercut European ones.

Meanwhile, across the pond: The US House of Representatives, back from summer recess, has taken up a series of bills aiming to protect US intellectual property from China, ban Chinese EVs and drones, and reduce reliance on Beijing’s biotechnology companies.

More For You

- YouTube

Artificial intelligence is already helping humanitarian organizations identify people in need, improve supply chains, and deliver assistance more efficiently. But it also introduces new risks.

AI is spreading faster, and the gap is growing wider. What that means in practice isn’t straightforward. In the first edition of AIEI Perspectives, a new editorial series from the Microsoft AI Economy Institute, six experts answer the same questions about who benefits from AI, who’s still waiting, and what shapes that outcome. Their answers don’t all land in the same place. Instead, they offer different ways of interpreting the same challenge — highlighting where views align and diverge and what it may take to close the gap over time. Read the perspectives here.

Competitive pay. 401(k) contributions upon employment and 6% company match once eligible. Up to 16 weeks of combined paid maternity and parental leave. These benefits and more inspire generations – Daidrian’s 18-year Walmart journey motivated her son Jonothan to launch his own career as a Walmart associate. Learn more.