Letta warns national sovereignty hands advantage to US and China
Former Italian prime minister Enrico Letta has warned that EU states prioritizing national independence over bloc-wide integration are surrendering economic ground to the US and China, as ministers prepare to debate a new roadmap for Europe's fragmented capital markets.
Enrico Letta has urged European Union member states to place the bloc’s sovereignty above national independence, arguing the current economic climate demands a continental scale to compete with Washington and Beijing. "National sovereignty is like sending a gift to the Americans and the Chinese," the former Italian prime minister told Euronews. "The true battle is for European sovereignty."
His remarks arrive ahead of pivotal 2027 elections that could alter the bloc's political balance, most notably Marine Le Pen's recent decision to run for the French presidency. While the National Rally figurehead now advocates reshaping the EU from within as a bloc of sovereign nations, her past campaign to take France out of the Eurozone continues to unsettle Brussels.
Letta, who serves as President of the Jacques Delors Institute, noted a recent acceleration in political will to deepen the single market. He attributed this shift directly to external pressures. "The political reason for the acceleration, for me, is linked to the Greenland crisis, which changed everything," he said, referencing US President Donald Trump's ambition to seize the mineral-rich Danish territory.
This renewed urgency is translating into policy action, with EU ministers discussing the "One Europe, One Market" roadmap at the General Affairs Council in Brussels on Tuesday. The plan draws heavily from Letta's 2024 report, which highlights a critical disconnect in European finance: the bloc holds €33 trillion in private savings, yet around €300 billion of household savings are diverted abroad, primarily to the US economy.
For European investors and companies, resolving this fragmentation through a proposed Savings and Investments Union is essential to funding innovation. Letta argued the US leads the artificial intelligence race not through public funding, but by efficiently channelling private capital through integrated financial markets. "We are the continent of savings and savers. We are top in that, but we use our savings very badly," he said.
He proposed a European label for savings accounts that would offer citizens better returns while directing capital into the real economy. Drawing a parallel to the adoption of the euro, Letta insisted that integrating energy, digital services, and financial markets does not threaten national identities. "We can be more competitive without losing our identities," he said.
