Europe must "re-find the capacity to grow" in order to be able to protect itself in a turbulent world, former European Central Bank President and former Italian premier Mario Draghi has said in the preface to a new book released on Tuesday.
    Draghi said regaining strong economic growth was not just a "question of social justice" but also necessary in order to be able to "defend our borders and our political independence, our freedom".
    The book, published by Rizzoli and entitled "Compete or Vanish: For a New European Landscape," brings together speeches Draghi gave between 2023 and 2025 to analyse the current international scenario.
    Using his influential 2024 report on boosting Europe's competitiveness as a starting point, the book also presents a concrete plan of action to bring this about.
    "Being able to compete with the rest of the world means ensuring that young Europeans—and Europeans not yet born—have the same rights, the same protections, and the same opportunities that have defined our model over the decades," Draghi said.
    "Acting together has become a necessary condition for the democracies of the European Union to face competition with the other great powers of the world, but also to survive with those values that over the years have come to define this common (European) identity".

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