BRUSSELS — Ursula von der Leyen’s European Commission breathed a sigh of relief that Mario Draghi has, at least for now, tempered his fault-finding.

While the former European Central Bank chief used the one year anniversary of his landmark competitiveness report to deliver a blunt assessment of its implementation — Europe is moving too slowly, countries are blocking change, and the world won’t wait — he was less damning than he has been.

“For Europe’s survival, we must do what has not been done before, and refuse to be held back by self-imposed limits,” he told an audience at a Commission-organized event in Brussels. “How do we increase speed?” 

Draghi’s report — aimed at finding ways to unshackle the European economy and boost competitiveness — was published with fanfare a year ago. But progress remains patchy at best, with only a handful of its core ideas advancing meaningfully, according to a POLITICO analysis.

Commission officials were braced therefore for something similar to his speech last month in Rimini, Italy, when he dismissed the EU’s trade strategy, saying the 12 months since his report would be “remembered as the year in which this illusion [of a geopolitical EU] evaporated.”

But on Tuesday, he pulled his punches.

“This time felt significantly less harsh and more respectful than in Rimini,” an EU official told POLITICO, signaling that Draghi’s remarks last month had not been well received within the Commission.

But while Draghi praised parts of the Commission’s agenda — notably its overall focus on competitiveness — he was still broadly critical.

Long-standing taboos

“In some areas, the EU can do more with the powers it already has,” he said, dismissing the idea that difficult treaty change is needed.

He didn’t spare governments either, accusing them of clinging to “long-standing taboos” while “the rest of the world has already broken theirs.” 

“Sometimes inertia is even presented as respect for the rule of law,” he said. “I think that’s complacency.”

He called the AI Act, one of the Commission’s flagship policies, “another source of uncertainty” in the EU’s journey toward simpler and more harmonized rules — which, he argued, still remained vague.

‘Urgency mindset’

While after the Rimini speech von der Leyen took the rare step of penning a direct response via an op-ed that ran in several European newspapers defending the EU-U.S. trade deal, this time she offered a more general perspective.

“The report brought an urgency mindset,” the European Commission president said. “We will relentlessly stay the course until we get it all done.”

The executive had already delivered concrete initiatives, she said. She shifted the responsibility to the European Parliament and national governments, which she said needed to follow.

The real issue seems to be the weight Draghi’s report now carries. Unlike the usual stack of Commission strategies, this one was requested at the highest political level and embedded in the Commissioners’ mission letters at the start of von der Leyen’s second term in office, which began in December.

“The Draghi report is a pledge,” said Antonios Nestoras, founder of the EPIC think tank and head of its Draghi Observatory. “For many people, it’s a promise — and that’s why it becomes a liability if they don’t deliver.”