“Europe has everything it needs to succeed in the race to the top. But, at the same time, we must fix our weaknesses to regain competitiveness”. This was said today by the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, today as she presented the “Competitiveness Compass”, a sort of guideline for EU action in economy over the next few years. “The Competitiveness Compass transforms the excellent recommendations of the Draghi report into a roadmap. So now we have a plan. We have the political will. What matters is speed and unity. The world is not waiting for us. All Member States agree on this. So, let’s turn this consensus into action”. According to the EU Commission, the Competitiveness Compass is “the first major initiative of this mandate providing a strategic and clear framework to steer the Commission’s work”. The Compass “sets a path for Europe to become the place where future technologies, services, and clean products are invented, manufactured, and put on the market, while being the first continent to become climate neutral.” Over the last two decades, Europe “has not kept pace with other major economies due to a persistent gap in productivity growth. The EU has what is needed to reverse this trend with its talented and educated workforce, capital, savings, Single Market, unique social infrastructure, provided it acts urgently to tackle longstanding barriers and structural weaknesses that hold it back”.