EU economy chief says more public intervention ‘inevitable’

Paris: The European Union’s economy chief stressed that governments need to provide targeted public support to keep the bloc competitive in the face of inflation and public debt.

Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni pointed out that government help during the pandemic was unavoidable, and more will be needed to keep Europe competitive in the race to develop clean technology.

“We should start from the fact that public intervention will have a stronger role than in the past - this is inevitable,” Gentiloni said at the Brussels Economic Forum on Thursday. “But part of this green tech race “- that is going on all over the world “- is supported by governments, and I think this dimension needs to be there at national and European level.”

The EU faces challenges to maintain sustainable growth while slowly reducing the continent’s public debt, lowering inflation and increasing households’ purchasing power.

“We need fiscal responsibility, we need to reduce the debts, and we need to tackle inflation,” Gentiloni said. “At the same time, we have to face the challenges of the different transitions and the mountain of investment that we have ahead of us.”