Draghi’s Comeback Fuels EU Gossip Mill as He Sounds Out CEOs
(Bloomberg) -- Mario Draghi is making headlines again, and his latest mission sounding out the heads of leading companies is fueling speculation that he could be aiming for another top job in the European Union.
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After keeping a low profile over recent months partly at his country home in the Umbria region, the former premier and European Central Bank chief met with company executives in Milan on Wednesday. It’s part of his research to forge a strategy to boost European competitiveness at the request of Ursula von der Leyen, head of the European Commission.
“I’m here to listen,” Draghi told a crowd of reporters as he headed into the meeting at the Bank of Italy building in the country’s financial capital. He did not reply to a question about his potential new roles in the EU.
The sudden return to the spotlight for Draghi, who famously pledged to do “whatever it takes” to save the euro in 2012, has sparked rumors that he could be aiming for the post of European Council president. Charles Michel, the incumbent, has announced that he plans to leave the post early to seek a seat in the European Parliament elections.
At stake in Draghi’s competitiveness road map is an economic and geopolitical challenge as the EU struggles to navigate competition from countries including China and the US.
The bloc reviewed its state-aid rules this year to counter massive subsidies provided by the US and China, especially in green technologies. The EU has started an investigation into Chinese subsidies for electric vehicles, and has been dragged into a subsidy fight triggered by Joe Biden’s clean technology law.
In Milan, Draghi is scheduled to meet with managers who are part of the European Round Table of Industry, an advocacy group that brings together around 60 major European companies. His discussions will be with a delegation from Vodafone, Syensqo, Titan Cement and Siemens.
Draghi will be back on the road two days later, to discuss his task with von der Leyen and other commission members in Brussels. He’s expected to hand in his report after June’s European Parliament elections, possibly in July, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named on a confidential issue.
When von der Leyen recruited Draghi last year to write a report on the future of European competitiveness, she highlighted the “economic and national security imperative to preserve a European edge on critical and emerging technologies.”
The search for Michel’s successor, which involves horse trading among the EU’s largest parties, may be too political for Draghi who has no party affiliation. Yet his extensive resume helps make him a contender. He played an essential role in repairing Italian finances after the Covid-19 pandemic as prime minister from 2021 to 2022.
Draghi is currently not interested in any top EU job, according to an official briefed on his thinking.
Draghi has turned out to be an unlikely ally for Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. When in Oct. 2022 Draghi handed to an emotional Meloni the little bell that Italian premiers use to call cabinet meetings to order, she seemed to represent his direct opposite. At the head of the right-wing Brothers of Italy party, she had pledged to revolutionize the establishment.
Instead she consulted him often, particularly on managing Italy’s almost €200 billion ($219 billion) share of EU recovery funds.
If Michel is elected in June he could step down from his current role in July, before his term is scheduled to end in November. If there is no agreement on a replacement, the role could be assumed in the interim by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, whose country will then hold the EU’s six-monthly presidency.
Alongside the EU’s transition to a net zero economy, the bloc has introduced laxer rules on state funding, allowing businesses across the continent easier access to national subsidies.
Over recent years, the EU has also moved to block major industrial mergers which it fears could distort competition on its internal market, despite having the potential to allow European businesses to compete globally with the US and China. EU competition chief Margrethe Vestager blocked Siemens AG and Alstom SA’s plan to merge into a world-conquering European rail champion in 2019, much to the frustration of German and French governments.
--With assistance from Jorge Valero, Samuel Stolton, Richard Bravo, Tommaso Ebhardt and Gina Turner.
(Updates with start of meeting, Draghi remark from second paragraph)
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