To avoid waste and duplication, European countries must coordinate defense spending , regardless of whether America with Joe Biden or Donald Trump in command asks for it. This is supported by Mario Draghi who spoke at a conference of the National Association for Business Economics in Washington where he was awarded the prestigious Volcker Lifetime Achievement Award.
«There is a strong need to coordinate our defense spending - underlined the former Italian prime minister in an interview following his lectio magistralis - to avoid duplication and waste. On the other hand we must invest in some defense sectors and all this is only possible with a common vision of defense and foreign policy."
The former president of the European Central Bank did not want to go into the merits of the next elections in the United States and clarified that regardless of the next president, whether he is a "friendly or hostile" partner, Europe must "get a move on" from the point from a defense perspective .
Draghi then addressed the risk of increasingly isolationist policies in the Old Continent, underlining that recent polls do not highlight "radical changes". On the other hand, the former prime minister specified, "even the toughest isolationists in Europe must realize that each European country is too small on its own." As for Ukraine and its entry into the EU, the former governor of the Bank of Italy explained that the risk is leaving the country alone after the end of the war.
«Ukraine would be one of the largest members of the European Union with many resources but also with an enormous need to rebuild everything that Russia destroyed. The EU today represents Kiev's anchor,” he said.
(Unioneonline/D)
