BRUSSELS — The last we heard, Mario Draghi didn’t sound too happy about progress the EU had made following his plan to revive the European economy.
The EU needs to react to the “very brutal wake-up call from Trump,” he said last month, calling the bloc “ill-equipped” to deal with global challenges.
A year on from the competitiveness report’s publication, there’s been a flurry of policy initiatives from the European Commission with catchy names such as the “Competitiveness Compass” and the “Clean Industrial Deal.” In most cases, it seems the ambition is there. What they’ve lacked is the necessary buy-in from national governments.
The European Policy Innovation Council, a Brussels-based think tank, shares the impression there have been lots of ideas but rather less delivery. Its “Draghi Observatory” measured progress in various policy areas, coming up with a figure of 11 percent for “fully implemented” proposals.
Now, it’s time for POLITICO Pro’s policy experts to weigh in.
The budget: Nowhere near
The Commission created a pot of cash worth €409 billion for the EU’s seven-year budget to fund Europe’s industrial revival.
Commission President Ursula von der Leyen argued this would enable European firms to rapidly scale up and cut red tape in accessing the EU’s money — two key priorities championed by Draghi.
But von der Leyen’s reformist zeal was undermined by national capitals and some of her own commissioners pushing against major cuts to farmers’ subsidies and poorer regions. These have historically made up a major chunk of the budget and are spent nationally for the most part.
The overall size of the proposed budget — worth 1.26 percent of the EU’s total gross national income, including the reimbursement of post-Covid debt — doesn’t even come close to the scale of the challenges outlined by Draghi.
Draghi-ometer: 
Finance: Good ambition but few results yet
Draghi’s call for a genuine single market for investment in the EU has been heeded — the new von der Leyen Commission, which came into office last year, made it a political priority and gave it a shiny new branding: the “savings and investments union.” It bolted new initiatives onto the decade-old “capital markets union.”
So far, the ambition looks decent — but many of the key proposals, like plans to integrate capital markets supervision and break down national barriers for companies like stock exchanges and clearinghouses, are still to come.
As with so much related to Draghi’s ideas, we can expect national and industry opposition to many of the Commission’s plans, particularly where they touch on delicate areas for governments like tax or insolvency rules.
So we wouldn’t be surprised to get another frustrated lecture from him about the lack of progress a year from now.
Draghi-ometer: 
Joint debt: Let’s see
Draghi has been a consistent advocate for EU joint borrowing of the kind carried out during the pandemic to fund its economic recovery.
Fresh funds could help finance large infrastructure projects across the bloc. Maybe even more importantly, it would create what’s called a “European safe asset” — a large pool of tradable debt that could draw in investment from across the world, help promote the use of the euro as a currency internationally, and act as a benchmark for lending across the EU.
But there are a few big buts.
Joint borrowing has always been a political taboo, blocked by the so-called frugal countries like Germany and the Netherlands. So far, that taboo remains largely intact, with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz opposing further EU-level forays into the bond market.
Still, there are some signs that the old prohibition is changing: The bloc’s €150 billion defense lending program was financed by EU borrowing. It’s still a far-cry from the enormous U.S. government bond market, which is measured in tens of trillions of dollars, but it’s something.
The Commission’s new budget proposal contains new avenues for joint borrowing as well. The outstanding questions remains whether the EU can issue new debt regularly and predictably, like national governments do, and which is what investors want to see, or if it will continue to dip into the bond markets sporadically. So far, it’s the latter.
Draghi-ometer:
Automotive: We’re talking at least
On paper, the automotive industry is one of the few where the Commission knocked it out of the park. Draghi called for an industrial action plan for the sector and for the executive to adopt a “technology neutral” approach in its review of fleet emissions — check and check.
But the devil is in the details, and those are harder to come by.
Shortly after New Year, von der Leyen announced a “strategic dialogue” for the automotive sector and released a subsequent “automotive action plan.” What it lacked in specifics, it made up for in optimism. The proposals further aligned with many of Draghi’s recommendations, such as building out a more robust charging network, promising a regulatory framework for autonomous driving and putting technological neutrality into the 2035 legislation on car emissions.
But it’s a familiar story: There’s a problem in implementation, which is still lagging. Apart from putting forward a measure to give automakers leniency on this year’s emissions targets and moving up the review of the 2035 law, few actions have been taken since the plan was published in March.
Meanwhile, Chinese automakers continue to import their vehicles, shifting from electric vehicles to the more popular hybrid models after the Commission slapped the EVs with new duties.
Draghi-ometer:
Energy: US overdependence, little action
Draghi’s diagnosis of the troubles facing Europe’s economy pointed squarely at high energy costs harming the continent’s industries. But his prescription — as much as half a trillion euros in power grid investments this decade alone — has proven a bitter pill to swallow for the cash-strapped Commission.
Since then, Brussels has published an “action plan on affordable energy,” setting out a range of measures it wants to take to cut bills. Among them is a plan to invest in American fossil fuel infrastructure in order to secure the best deals, which has seen green groups up in arms.
And von der Leyen has vowed to spend an additional $750 billion on American energy in the coming years as part of a trade deal with Washington.
So far, it’s unclear what that might mean for energy prices, or how it’s even possible. So far, for energy, the Draghi report has seen big promises, and little action.
Draghi-ometer: 
Telecoms: Governments aren’t fans
Draghi’s pitch — fewer telecom operators, deregulation and more EU oversight over spectrum to unlock champions and drive more money into the bloc’s digital infrastructure — landed in Brussels with perfect timing, backing the Commission’s own reform drive.
Yet his “Telecoms Act” blueprint faces headwinds. While some ideas could seep into the upcoming “Digital Networks Act” in December, and merger rules are under review, EU capitals have already shot down much of Draghi’s prescription.
From regulators to national governments to smaller operators, few are ready to swallow Draghi’s telecom medicine. What survives in the Commission’s proposal is still in the air — but he most certainly won’t get it all.
Draghi-ometer:
Competition: Cosmetic progress
Competition Commissioner Teresa Ribera took fast action on Draghi’s calls to make competition policy fit for today’s challenges on productivity and growth.
In the first few months of her second term in office she promptly initiated (and completed) a review of the bloc’s guidelines on public subsidies — the Clean Industrial Deal State Aid Framework — to make them better aimed at increasing companies’ productivity and decarbonization efforts.
She also launched a wide-ranging review of the guidelines accompanying the EU’s merger rules, which, Draghi said, should be tailored to make room for arguments around efficiency and innovation.
The downside? The new merger guidelines will only be ready at the end of 2027. And also, these are just guidelines, not a new regulation, so experts are predicting a limited impact on how the Commission’s competition officials go about assessing mergers.
While the new state aid framework does not dramatically alter EU countries’ margin of maneuver when it comes to subsidizing their industry, even the more ambitious points, like electricity bill discounts for energy-hungry companies, come with heavy conditions attached. Those hoping for an overhaul of the bloc’s conservative competition policy are likely to remain disappointed.
Draghi-ometer:
Trade: Same old
With this one, it depends who you ask. EU industrial sectors demanding more trade protections will probably find the Commission falling short. At the same time, the Commission has held firm under Chinese pressure to bury the duties on electric cars to counter Beijing’s state support.
Brussels applied those less than two months after Draghi’s report came out and has resisted agreeing to a price floor with the Chinese ever since.
Draghi suggested the Commission start many such investigations, especially on its own initiative and not only based on a formal industry complaint. That hasn’t happened yet ― the EV case remains the only one to date.
Draghi’s report called for a European foreign economic policy. U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff war has made that only more pressing.
Again though, little has actually been achieved in robustly prepping the EU for even harder times to come. The time-consuming and costly response to Trump’s tariffs has a lot to do with that, along with the EU’s traditional careful strategy on trade policy as it holds onto World Trade Organization rules.
Draghi-ometer:
Cybersecurity: Promises, promises …
Europe faces conventional warfare on its eastern border — and hybrid warfare everywhere else. That means cyberattacks on energy grids and telecoms, meddling in elections, and the weaponization of migration.
The Commission along with the leaders of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Sweden issued a joint statement of support during the Baltic Sea NATO allies summit on Jan. 14 ahead of the launch of NATO’s Baltic Sentry operation to increase military presence in the Baltic Sea.
Brussels also earmarked €540 million for connectivity infrastructure under the 2024–2027 Connecting Europe Facility program, which includes funding for smart cable systems designed not only to carry data but also to act as early warning sensors.
It also promised to boost Europe’s cable deployment and repair capacity by building up a fleet able to rapidly intervene across all EU waters but not much has happened since the executive vice president said it in January.
Draghi-ometer:
Defense: Jealously guarded by the capitals
If you read some of the lines in the competitiveness report Draghi presented a year ago, it would be easy to see the EU has been listening to him. For example, Draghi asked to “establish a Defence Industry Commissioner, with the appropriate structure and funding.” That has indeed happened, but it was the easy part.
The proposal was already in the manifesto of von der Leyen’s European People Party for the June 2024 European election. In the same report, Drgahi calls for “empowering the Commission in its coordination role in the field of defence industrial policy.” And that’s the less easy part.
Defense is a national responsibility and governments have generally little appetite for the Commission to take a bigger role.
Last month, Draghi repeated that internal barriers are a key reason Europe is falling behind and said that they are also making Europe’s defense buildup less efficient. Although EU countries intend to increase their military investment by €2 trillion by 2031, “we have internal barriers that impose a 64 percent tariff on equipment and 95 percent on metals,” he said.
Diplomats say that often Draghi pushes for ideas that are not in line with national governments. The best example is from last September when he called for Europe “to federalize some of the investment spending.” The word “federalism” has become almost a taboo. And defense bonds are still very far from seeing the light.
Draghi-ometer:
Health: Chugging ahead
Few commissioners have taken on the messaging of the Draghi report with as much enthusiasm as health chief Olivér Várhelyi. He’s racing to complete a proposal for a Biotech Act, which will need to perform some heavy lifting in his Draghification plan, by the end of the year.
According to Draghi, underinvestment and red tape are the main culprits for Europe’s flagging competitiveness with the U.S. and China in pharma innovation and clinical trials. Europe’s pharma lobby praised the July budget proposal for including a standalone research framework program with an increased budget of €175 billion but says there still isn’t enough ring-fenced funding for health research in Europe.
Draghi noted the last Horizon Europe budget allocated €8.2 billion to health, dwarfed by the €47 billion spent by the U.S. in 2023. The EU’s latest budget proposal allocated €22.6 billion for health, biotech and the bioeconomy. A sizeble investment but still a long way to go.
On the regulatory side, Draghi’s most urgent short-term recommendations were for the Commission to maximize the impact of the European Health Data Space and fully implement the Health Technology Assessment Regulation. The EHDS is here, but national assessors have found it difficult to secure the resources they need.
One of Draghi’s ideas, for the EU to back “world-class innovation hubs” modeled on centers in California, already made it into the life sciences strategy published in July. But industry’s hopes for a game-changing piece of legislation still rest with the Biotech Act.
Draghi-ometer:
Sustainability: All done, business says thanks
This Commission’s first major piece of legislation was plucked straight out of the Draghi playbook: a giant bill slashing a range of environmental laws for businesses.
Under the proposed omnibus simplification bill — which is now working its way through the legislative process — many fewer companies will be subject to environmental reporting rules, and those that still are will have much reduced duties.
The scope of a carbon border tax has also been reduced. Business is delighted. Green groups are appalled. Among legislators, the most resistance is coming in the European Parliament, but right-wing groups have the numbers to defeat left-leaning opponents of the bill.
Following the bill’s release in February, the Commission has proposed a long list of reforms watering down green regulations brought in under the European Green Deal of the previous five years, from farmers’ duties to chemical regulations to anti-greenwashing rules, all in the name of reducing Draghi’s hated “restrictive regulations.”
Draghi-ometer: 
Agriculture: Missing in action
The Draghi report contained no proposals to address the future of agriculture — even though the Common Agricultural Policy accounts for a third of the EU budget. A Ctrl + F search of the 400-page document yields only a handful of hits for “agriculture” — mainly in relation to information technology, artificial intelligence and satellite observation.
What is clear from the Draghi report is that he views EU farm spending as a potential source of money to divert to his strategic priorities — chiefly boosting industrial competitiveness and European security. The long-term budget proposal and CAP reform blueprint unveiled in July foresee a 20 percent reduction in the farm subsidy budget to €300 billion — and that is without taking inflation into account.
The Commission has argued that, in reality, the amount of money going into farmers’ pockets will remain the same — with rural development funding merely being shifted to pots managed by national governments. That may be so — but there was no word of it in the Draghi report.
Draghi-ometer: 
Francesca Micheletti, Carlo Martuscelli, Kathryn Carlson , James Fernyhough, Mathieu Pollet, Gabriel Gavin, Koen Verhelst, Douglas Busvine, Jacopo Barigazzi, Jordyn Dahl, Antoaneta Roussi, Rory O’ Neill and Gregorio Sorgi contributed to this report.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article misstated the number of references to agriculture in the Draghi report. The file was updated on Sept. 8.
