Von der Leyen is creating a task force to turn Draghi report into reality

BRUSSELS ― European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is setting up a team of officials dedicated to making good on Mario Draghi’s blueprint for competitiveness.

The task force would aim to turn the former European Central Bank president’s recommendations into concrete proposals and potential legislation, according to two European Union officials.

Draghi’s report on competitiveness, published in September, put forward a series of ideas for EU institutions and capitals to combat the “slow agony,” as he put it, that Europe risks facing because of a lack of investment in innovation, the fragmentation of financial markets along national borders, and because the manufacture and delivery of some strategic goods and services are too dependent on non-European companies.

Von der Leyen has made Draghi’s suggestions the center of her second term as Commission president, incorporating their main conclusions ― apart from joint EU borrowing ― in the political program she asked the European Parliament to support over the summer.

Presenting her new team before the Parliament on Wednesday, von der Leyen announced the main initiative of the next five-year term will be a “competitiveness compass” to close the innovation gap with the United States, decarbonize the EU economy and increase its economic independence, with each commissioner told to contribute to these goals.

While her words were a little vague, the concrete side of her announcement is the ongoing work to form a group of officials ― including figures from the handful who helped Draghi write his study and kept it confidential ― to help the Commission’s departments keep the report’s implementation on track.

The exact nature of the task force is still being worked out, ahead of the next Commission kicking off on Dec. 1. The group is likely to be within the secretariat-general, which would put it at the heart of the EU executive, meaning it could report directly to von der Leyen.