EU Must Act Quickly To Catch Up To US, Warns Report Author

The EU risks lagging further behind the United States unless Brussels makes significant changes to the single market, warned the author of a report that will be presented to leaders Thursday

Brussels, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 17th Apr, 2024) The EU risks lagging further behind the United States unless Brussels makes significant changes to the single market, warned the author of a report that will be presented to leaders Thursday.

Enrico Letta, a former Italian prime minister, has criss-crossed Europe and spent months preparing the report for EU leaders on what the 27-nation bloc needs to do to keep pace with other global economies including China.

European businesses have been hit hard by the fallout from Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine which sent energy prices soaring, while facing a double threat from bonanzas of state subsidies and reduced regulation in China and the United States.

"It's not only the United States that is able to do (this)," Letta told reporters at a press conference on Wednesday.

Growth figures for the EU and US economy illustrate the difference. The bloc grew by a mere 0.5 percent in 2023, compared with 2.5 percent in the United States.

In his report published Wednesday, Letta argued the single market that allows the free movement of goods, services, capital and people within the EU is too small.

It should be bigger and include energy, telecoms and finance as well as defence, he argued. Currently these markets are fragmented with different national rules that make it difficult to scale up.

Around 80 percent of the EU's military support to Ukraine went to non-European suppliers, Letta said, arguing that Brussels needed to do more to produce arms and ammunition in Europe.