President Marcegaglia in Davos: “Fragmentation of Europe would be a total disaster”

“We need stronger political will to work together in Europe to address common challenges.  Fragmentation of Europe would be a total disaster.  The answer to migrant crisis is to act together, we need a European answer.” Speaking at the World Economic Forum session on “The future of Europe” on 21 January 2016, involving Prime Ministers Mark Rutte, Manuel Valls, Alexis Tsipras and Minister Wolfgang Schäuble, BUSINESSEUROPE President Emma Marcegaglia gave her views on the current overall business climate and key issues to be tackled in 2016. Economic governance of the Economic and Monetary Union must improve in Europe, she stressed. More ambitions to make international trade negotiations a success, in particular in ongoing transatlantic negotiations, are needed. And the ongoing fourth industrial revolution would increase Europe’s competitiveness if we can successfully manage the digital transformation. To Europe’s manufacturing industry it could add a gross value worth 1.25 trillion euros. But if we miss this revolution, the potential losses can be up to 600 billion euros by 2025. This would be like losing over 10% of Europe’s industrial base.  “The answer to our problems is more Europe, not less Europe”, President Marcegaglia concluded.