{"id":41287,"date":"2026-05-13T21:09:34","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T21:09:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/41287\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T21:09:34","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T21:09:34","slug":"scale-is-the-key-to-eu-independence-enrico-letta-tells-eliamep-iobe-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/41287\/","title":{"rendered":"Scale is the key to EU independence, Enrico Letta tells ELIAMEP-IOBE event"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>                            <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"960\" height=\"600\" class=\"picture-main-block-image\" data-nxsrc=\"https:\/\/www.ekathimerini.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/letta-pierrakakis.jpg\" alt=\"Scale is the key to EU independence, Enrico Letta tells ELIAMEP-IOBE event\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/letta-pierrakakis-960x600.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Greek Finance Minister and Eurogroup President Kyriakos Pierrakakis (left) listens as Enrico Letta speaks during the event at the  IE Competitiveness Hub in Athens. <\/p>\n<p>Marking 40 years since the signing of the Single European Act, former Italian prime minister Enrico Letta joined Eurogroup President and Greek Finance Minister Kyriakos Pierrakakis at the IE Competitiveness Hub in Athens on Tuesday to warn that the European Union must embrace a \u201cmentality of scale\u201d to survive a shifting global order.<\/p>\n<p>The event, \u201cWhither EU Competitiveness?,\u201d co-hosted by the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP) and the Foundation for Economic and Industrial Research (IOBE), focused on the urgent need for technological sovereignty and financial integration to counter the dominance of the US and China.<\/p>\n<p>Letta, who is currently dean of IE University\u2019s School of Politics, Economics and Global Affairs in Madrid, offered a candid assessment of the continent\u2019s cultural barriers to growth. \u201cIn Europe, we like small projects. We are small countries \u2026 the kingdom of small and medium-sized enterprises,\u201d Letta said. \u201cThe problem is that the world has changed in scale, and we have not moved toward the integration of our financial markets.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He warned that fragmentation has left the bloc in a state of \u201casymmetric dependence\u201d on foreign powers for energy and finance. \u201cIndependence, in today\u2019s world, means the ability to acquire the necessary size,\u201d Letta added.<\/p>\n<p>Pierrakakis echoed this urgency, stating that Europe is already on \u201cPlan B\u201d due to chronic delays in tech investment. He cited the 5G era as a missed opportunity where Europe possessed the technology but lacked the unified regulatory framework to compete.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe need more integration in Europe, bank mergers, and larger businesses,\u201d Pierrakakis noted, praising Letta\u2019s recent high-level reports for shaping a \u201ccommon vocabulary\u201d for reform.<\/p>\n<p>The discussion, moderated by Bloomberg Athens bureau chief Viktoria Dendrinou, highlighted that the window for action is closing. Both speakers concluded that a rare \u201calignment of the stars\u201d offers a unique political opportunity to eliminate trade barriers. \u201cThere is no alternative plan,\u201d Letta warned. \u201cIf we miss this opportunity, we may never recover the loss.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Greek Finance Minister and Eurogroup President Kyriakos Pierrakakis (left) listens as Enrico Letta speaks during the event at&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41288,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[603,39,40,26417],"class_list":{"0":"post-41287","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-economy","9":"tag-eu","10":"tag-european-union","11":"tag-special-event"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41287\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/europe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}