Despite repeated pro-European declarations in Brussels and other capitals, a much more fundamental debate is taking hold: should integration be deepened further to boost competitiveness, should the regulatory machine be brought to a halt, or should certain powers of the Union even be reduced? Behind the quarrels over simplification and growth, what is really at stake is a redefinition of the EU’s political scope. The European Union is at a moment of truth. In Brussels and in the capitals, the economic diagnosis is now shared: falling productivity, flight of innovative companies, chronic underinvestment. But on the method for turning things around, the dividing lines are becoming more pronounced. Is the EU at an institutional as well as an economic crossroads? The coming months will be decisive in this regard, but one would have to be blind not to see that criticism and tensions are already mounting on all sides, even though the Commission has attempted to preempt them by launching the Draghi report and a stated policy of simplification. Shooting…
