Very different and often at odds, Minister Wolfgang Schäuble and banker Mario Draghi share the same objective: maintaining eurozone stability.
If Europe has entered an era of pragmatism after Brexit, then the relationship between Mario Draghi and Wolfgang Schäuble will be fairly smooth. They are two very different people, and the clash between them is overt and highly public. One is a super-technician, the other a super-politician. They have diverging views on economics; one has an Anglo-Saxon approach, while the other is driven by ordoliberalism, the German variant of social liberalism. They also have different institutional roles. Draghi, the president of the European Central Bank (ECB), has a wide remit covering the entire eurozone; Schäuble, Germany’s finance minister, is responsible for his country alone. These differences have recently
become stronger and harsher than ever before. But Draghi and Schäuble do have one thing in common: pragmatism. Thus while they will almost certainly disagree in the coming months, pragmatism will unite them in their aim to avoid disaster in
Europe.
Both men are undoubtedly staunch Europeanists. Draghi, who worked alongside Carlo Azeglio Ciampi at the Italian Treasury for years, has frequently expressed the need for further moves towards European integration.
Indeed, he has not merely spoken about it. By helping to draft “The Five Presidents’ Report” published by the European Commission, European Council, Eurogroup (a meeting of eurozone finance ministers), European Parliament and the ECB,
Draghi has actually set out a concrete path to follow. The report details the steps needed to complete an economic
and monetary union by 2025 with an approach that combines both vision and pragmatism.
If you want to read it all, purchase the entire issue in pdf for just three euro
Very different and often at odds, Minister Wolfgang Schäuble and banker Mario Draghi share the same objective: maintaining eurozone stability.
