European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said during her State of the Union address in Strasbourg on Wednesday that she has tasked former European Central Bank president and Italian ex-premier Mario Draghi with compiling a crucial report on EU competitiveness. She said the EU faces three challenges regarding labour, inflation and the business environment “at a time when we are also asking industry to lead on the clean transition.

“So we need to look further ahead and set out how we remain competitive as we do that,” von der Leyen said.

“This is why I have asked Mario Draghi – one of Europe’s great economic minds – to prepare a report on the future of European competitiveness.

“Because Europe will do “whatever it takes” to keep its competitive edge”.