![\"Wake-up](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/101562663-0-Wake_up_call_Former_Italian_Prime_Minister_Mario_Draghi_pictured-m-2_1756224138801.jpg\")
<\/p>\nMario Draghi, former Italian prime minister and ex-chief of the European Central Bank, has a neat way with words.<\/p>\n
His famous \u2018whatever it takes\u2019 pledge in 2012 to preserve the euro during Europe\u2019s sovereign debt crisis will be remembered as the turning point.<\/p>\n
Draghi has been firing his big bazooka again. His latest salvo came in a recent speech given in Italy, warning that Europe must face up to a harsh reality \u2013 that it is no longer a major global power.<\/p>\n
For years, he said, the European Union believed that its economic size, with 450m consumers, brought with it geopolitical power and influence in international trade relations, adding: \u2018This year will be remembered as the year in which this illusion evaporated.\u2019<\/p>\n
Tough words indeed. Draghi was referring to the brutal wake-up call that followed the EU\u2019s hopeless negotiations with Donald Trump which saw the US imposing 15 per cent tariffs on all European goods, and 50\u00a0per cent on steel and aluminium.<\/p>\n
And what did the EU agree to? Well, to eliminate all tariffs on US goods, open up its markets to American cars and agricultural products and not to apply its anti-trust policies to US tech companies. Nul points.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Wake-up call: Former Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi (pictured) says Europe must face up to the reality that it is no longer a major global power<\/p>\n
Again, Draghi is calling on Europe to reform and revamp its sclerotic economies, to become more competitive if it is to become a major player again in what he describes as this \u2018existential\u2019 crisis.<\/p>\n
On that we can agree. Europe is not in a good place, and that includes the UK.<\/p>\n
We may not be in the EU but we share many of the same problems: high welfare spending, high taxes, high immigration, low if no growth, an increasingly anti-entrepreneurial mindset in ever tighter regulatory environments.<\/p>\n
Foolishly, the answers to these problems are the same too, whether they come from the governing parties or opposition ones.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Higher taxes. And yet more taxes \u2013 the latest fanciful idea doing the rounds is for even heavier wealth taxes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
At least the French prime minister, Francois Bayrou, is bold enough to raise the ante in his attempt to get his \u20ac44billion of budget cuts through the National Assembly.<\/p>\n
Not surprisingly, his call for a vote of confidence on September 8 has spooked the markets, driving up French ten-year bond yields over 3\u00a0per cent and sending shares down on fears that weeks of instability lie ahead.<\/p>\n
Bayrou made the call ahead of planned national protests by the Bloquons Tout (Block Everything) movement which is backed by the unions and Jean-Luc Melenchon\u2019s Left-wing party, France Unbowed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A recent poll found that the grassroots protests are backed by two out of three French people. As expected, the opposition parties say they will oust Bayrou and his minority government when it comes to the vote.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Melenchon has thrown fuel on the fire by calling for President Macron\u2019s impeachment.<\/p>\n
If Bayrou doesn\u2019t put together a deal with the opposition over the budget cuts, then inevitably France will be forced into another snap election.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But Bayrou, who is backed by Macron, said while the vote is risky, it\u2019s \u2018even riskier not to do anything\u2019. Like most European countries, France is laden with debt. Its budget deficit last year was 5.8\u00a0per cent of GDP, and growing.<\/p>\n
It is highly unlikely, but there is even speculation that France, like Britain, will be forced to ask the International Monetary Fund to intervene if the financial markets keep driving up the cost of borrowing.<\/p>\n
Maybe this would be the deus ex machina moment required \u2013 in both countries \u2013 to snap politicians out of their slumber?<\/p>\n
Eye-watering Beckham<\/p>\n
Every 30 seconds, Victoria Beckham sells one of her Satin Kajal Liners \u2013 that\u2019s an eyeliner to you and me \u2013 which costs a cool \u00a332 a shot.<\/p>\n
It is one of many best-selling products in VB\u2019s fashion-to-beauty line which has topped \u00a3100million in sales for the first time.<\/p>\n
All credit to Victoria Beckham whose dabbling in business was scorned as being a celebrity vanity project built off the legs of her husband\u2019s fame.<\/p>\n
Yet she has more than proved her mettle, earning kudos from the snobbier Paris fashionistas for her design talents.<\/p>\n
She\u2019s also expanding at a time when even the luxury market is being squeezed. As the former Spice Girl would have sung, time to Spice Up Your Life.<\/p>\n
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