For several months now, the debate about Europe’s lagging competitiveness in relation to the United States and China has been gathering momentum. The alarm call was sounded by the report by Mario Draghi, former president of the European Central Bank. Submitted to the European Commission in September, it warns of a situation of “slow agony” for the continent. Europe is stalling, but France is looking the other way. In the French media, this issue remains confined to conferences and opinion columns. The country’s politicians, bogged down in an ongoing political crisis, are struggling to get to grips with the issue.
The Draghi report aims to raise awareness of the fragility of the European model. The list of vulnerabilities is long: a growth deficit; lower growth in disposable income per capita; weak investment and innovation; energy costs and bureaucracy, which weigh on competitiveness; declining productivity; fragmented markets; and a falling working population.
In contrast to the European slump, the US economy is firing on all cylinders, attracting talent and industry, while China’s export machine is becoming increasingly aggressive. But it’s the long term that’s most worrying. Without a new impetus, the continent is condemned to economic stagnation, which could have serious consequences for the financing of its social model, for employment, and eventually for its independence.
Explaining the complexity of the issues
What’s true on a broader continental scale is even truer for debt-ridden France. The fall in productivity is more dramatic in France than in neighboring countries. Although it had stabilized in recent years, deindustrialization is accelerating once again. The level of education among young people and skills among adults continues to decline. And the financing of our social model is weighing more and more heavily on wages, creating growing discontent regarding the cost of living.
Despite this worrying record, political debate fails to rise to the challenge and remains in denial. The politicians are content to respond to the short-term expectations of their electoral base. Apart from systematically resorting to the expedient of debt, efforts to counter Europe’s slide are at a standstill.
The country has no chance of moving forward unless a minimum of education is provided for its citizens. The cost of living is on everyone’s lips. It is necessary, however, to understand that households’ budgets depends on the wealth produced, which in turn depends on investment and productivity gains.
The loss of confidence in both institutions and leaders makes this a difficult exercise. It is imperative, however, to give primacy to the long term rather than the immediate, to explain the complexity of the issues at stake, to re-establish the link between the efforts required and the benefits to be gained, and to dispel the illusion of national egoism in favor of a geostrategic positioning from which we cannot escape.
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Jean-Louis Bourlanges, a former MP and seasoned foreign policy expert, has said “we’re witnessing a total divorce between what the French want and what France needs.” Until the two are reconciled, the country will be in serious trouble.
Translation of an original article published in French on lemonde.fr; the publisher may only be liable for the French version.
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Publish date : 2024-12-20 02:30:00
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