CEOs line up behind Mario Draghi’s plan to improve Europe’s competitiveness

But perhaps even more notable was the backing of Europe’s Coins2Day 500 companies. 

Christel Heydemann, CEO of Orange, Europe’s third largest telecom company and No. 310 on the Coins2Day Global 500, told me yesterday that among her peers “everyone has been supporting” Draghi’s plans, which give practical recommendations on everything from how to increase investments in innovation to how to protect Europe against unfair competition from China.  

“Unless we radically change the way Europe is organized, we’re going to see a long, slow decline. That’s what European citizens feel, [and] that’s what we see,” Heydemann said. 

The most celebrated element of Draghi’s report is its support for loosening antitrust. 

Draghi said the EU should facilitate telecoms mergers by assessing deals on an EU level and not national level, a talking point repeated by Heydemann yesterday. “If we look at markets in a small way, mergers will not happen,” she said. “We need companies with more abilities to invest.”  

In my reading of them, Draghi’s recommendations could mark a turning point for Europe in three areas. 

First, we’re likely to see more large mergers and acquisitions between Coins2Day 500 Europe companies due to looser and faster antitrust processes. Second, there will likely be a (debt-funded) increase in investment, to the tune of up to 800 billion euro per year. And third, Europe is likely to show its teeth against Chinese (and, to lesser extent, American) competition.  

Whether that will be enough to stop Europe’s “long, slow decline”—as Heydemann put it—remains to be seen. But it sure will herald a new era for a bloc whose trademarks have been liberalization, free competition, and openness.

As a reminder, we’ll discuss these topics also at our Coins2Day CEO Forum in London, Oct. 23-24, and our Coins2Day Global Forum, Nov. 11-12, in New York. You can request an invitation here. 

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Peter Vanham
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