Europe has a competitiveness problem.
China manufactures things. America invents things. Europe regulates the things invented by America and manufactured in China.
Fortunately, help has arrived.
Mario Draghi and a collection of CEOs, economists, academics and former policymakers have created the Rhine Group to help Europe “compete, build, and grow again.”
Mario Draghi has spent approximately twenty years explaining to Europe that Europe urgently needs to do things. Governor of the Bank of Italy, President of the European Central Bank, Prime Minister of Italy, author of the Draghi Report on European competitiveness — and now co-chairman of the Rhine Group.
At some point, however, an impolite question needs to be asked.
Are the people who are going to rescue Europe from its economic problems essentially the same political, financial and technocratic establishment that was sitting around the table while many of those problems developed?
Apparently, yes.
And where has Europe’s new strategic-autonomy dream team established itself?
Switzerland.
And what technology does it use to spread the message of European technological sovereignty?
American technology, with web infrastructure reportedly located in the United States.
You couldn’t make this up.
Europe’s new plan for strategic autonomy appears to be: leave the European Union, cross the Atlantic digitally, assemble another group of experts and explain once again that Europe urgently needs to become more competitive.
The stakes, the Rhine Group tells us, are “existential.”
Don’t worry.
There’s a committee on it.
And this brings us back to Mario Draghi.
I noticed a rather interesting line on his CV: Vice Chairman and Managing Director of Goldman Sachs International, 2002–2005.
Now, I’m all in favour of experience. But at some point, introspection becomes necessary.
Before setting out to explain what went wrong with Europe and how to fix it, you need to look at yourself in the mirror and ask a very simple question:
Was I part of the system that helped create the problem?
And, perhaps more importantly, make damn sure you haven’t started believing your own bullshit.
Then there’s the name.
Even that isn’t particularly original.
Before Draghi and Europe’s business elite launched the Rhine Group, there was already a Group Rhine in India — an actual industrial company involved in power distribution, transformers, smart meters, EV chargers and data centres.
Which creates a rather beautiful metaphor.
The Indian Group Rhine makes things.
The European Rhine Group makes recommendations about why Europe doesn’t make enough things.
You couldn’t have scripted it better.
Sources
- Rhine Group — Official Website — Mission, membership, governance and the group’s stated objective of restoring European competitiveness.
- Rhine Group — Mario Draghi profile — Draghi’s role as co-founder/co-chair, ECB presidency, Italian premiership and competitiveness report.
- European Central Bank — Mario Draghi biography — Career history, including Director General of the Italian Treasury, Governor of the Bank of Italy and Vice Chairman and Managing Director of Goldman Sachs International (2002–2005).
- EU-Startups — What is the Rhine Group? — Analysis of the group’s membership, geographical representation and European innovation/competitiveness agenda.
- EUROMETAL — Rhine Group, Draghi and European business leaders launch lobby group — Coverage of the group’s launch and participating business leaders.
- Group Rhine India — Official Website — The pre-existing Indian Group Rhine and its industrial activities, including transformers, substations, smart meters, EV chargers and data-centre infrastructure.
- Group Rhine India — Company History — Confirms that Rhine Group was established in 2018 and subsequently expanded into transformers, smart metering and modular data centres.
- T&D India — Interview with Group Rhine founder Sanjay Surana — June 2025 interview covering the Indian company’s power-distribution, EV-charging and data-centre activities.