Next Gear: Powering the Draghi Report

One year has gone by since Europe first saw The Future of European Competitiveness, the landmark report from former Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi. The report laid out bold recommendations to streamline regulation, reduce dependencies and drive investment in innovation to boost European growth.

Europe has listened and acted with the European Union now solidifying its innovation regulatory framework with the upcoming digital omnibus simplification package. But what is still missing to fully deliver on Mario Draghi’s call for renewed competitiveness?

To address this important question, the Lisbon Council convened the High-Level Working Lunch on ‘Delivering the Draghi Report: How to Switch Gear,’ an open conversation among leading voices from policy, civil society and industry reflecting on the next big priorities of Europe’s agenda and their potential to advance and accelerate Draghi’s recommendations.

Kent Walker, president of global affairs at Google and Alphabet, opened the discussion by sharing a global perspective on the technological transition and Europe’s role within it. High-level speakers also included Luís Viegas Cardoso, member, European Union’s competitiveness task-force, European Commission; Andras Inotai, head of taskforce on startups and scaleups and head of unit, innovation policy and access to finance, directorate-general research and innovation, European Commission; Ludovic Lacaine, head, European Union relations, Roche; Ann Mettler, co-chair, Energy Resilience Leadership Group and former director-general, European Commission; Hugh Pullen, vice-president and head of public affairs, region Europe, Novartis; and Leena Whittaker, director for competitiveness, EuroCommerce.