EU leaders seek to boost competitiveness at informal summit

EU leaders are meeting at an informal summit focused on strengthening the single market and boosting European competitiveness amid an increasingly volatile global economy. 

The brainstorming retreat is being held at a 16th-century castle in the Belgian countryside.

Leaders from the EU’s 27 member states are seeking ways to better compete with global rivals. Their discussions are based on two major 2024 reports: one on competitiveness by former European Central Bank president Mario Draghi, which offered a sobering assessment of the EU’s economic decline compared with the United States and China and called for ambitious reforms; and another by former Italian prime minister Enrico Letta on the EU’s internal market.

Ahead of the summit, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz met with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and French President Emmanuel Macron. The three agreed that European industry must be a top priority and that regulatory burdens need to be drastically reduced.

“We want to make the EU faster and better. We want European industries to be competitive,” Merz said. “We have many issues to cover, which is why we’ve invited Draghi and Letta to discuss competitiveness and the single market.”

Rising energy costs are a key concern for many EU economies. Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán warned that high energy prices are the main impediment to competitiveness.

French President Emmanuel Macron said the situation was urgent.

“We are facing increasing pressure from often unfair competition, particularly from China’s practices, tariffs imposed by the United States, and other coercive tactics,” Macron said. “This requires a response.” He added that the EU must move quickly and reach concrete decisions by June.

Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said competitiveness would be the EU’s top political issue this year.

“The goal of this meeting is to agree on concrete measures to be taken over the next year or two to advance the single market and reduce bureaucratic barriers for our economy,” Plenković said.

The retreat is intended to help prepare the ground for a regular meeting of EU leaders next month in Brussels.