Competition policy must reflect Europe’s reality, not its aspirations

In recent months, two major reports on the EU by former Italian prime ministers, Enrico Letta and Mario Draghi, have painted a dire picture of the bloc’s economic prospects. It is hard to argue with their diagnosis: Europe has doggedly low productivity growth, meaning it is struggling to become more efficient and produce more value for each hour worked. One reason is that established European firms are not using new technologies or innovating much themselves, while small and innovative firms are often unable to grow. Letta and Draghi conclude that one way to partly solve the problem would be for the European Commission to think more about innovation and growth in enforcing competition policy.