Professor Schmidt Discusses Potential Impact of Letta and Draghi Reports in New Article
Professor Vivien A. Schmidt wrote a new article for the Annual Review Issue by Wiley, published on August 5, 2025. Click here to read the full article. Contextualized within a long history of policy briefs, reports, and documents in efforts to influence policy-makers’ decisions about EU economic policy and governance, the most recent reports being by Enrico Letta (2024) on the single market and by Mario Draghi (2024) on competitiveness in the EU. Whether the Letta and Draghi expert reports have a direct or immediate impact on the EU political agenda remains an open question.
Schmidt leads the article by breaking down how and why such reports are made to matter. Stating that in order to gain traction, “ideas need to be constructed in ways that resonate, and they have to be developed and communicated widely. In the construction of ideas, this means that ‘ideational entrepreneurs’ need to create compelling narratives and enlightening frames able to convince people that they have adequately identified the problems and proposed valid solutions that are appropriate in terms of community values.” Additionally, “ideas also must have ‘persuasive power’, they need to be able to bring people over to their point of view, thereby constructing something of a consensus on what needs to be done.” Schmidt unpacks how both reports have been able to achieve importance, evidenced by the way in which the reports have become the starting point for EU discourse about the political agenda.
She continues on with key points within the reports that have had mixed real-world impacts thus far. Published before Trump began his second term as President, they anticipate some major initiatives including the security threats from a potential US retreat from NATO and the economic perils related to ‘America First’ policies in terms of trade and tariffs. The reports call for the creation of EU strategic autonomy not only in security and defense but also in areas such as AI and platform economies. They point to the pressing need for European industrial policy and promotion of EU industrial capacity, which in turn depends on the enhancement of research capabilities and innovation along with education and skills training. One important element missing from both reports is consideration of how the constraints on investment imposed by the Eurozone’s fiscal rules undermine their ambitious plans for revitalizing the EU’s economy.
By seeming to tacitly accept the return to the fiscal rules without addressing their deleterious impact, let alone suggesting work-arounds or ways to go beyond them, the Letta and Draghi reports have failed to grapple with one of the biggest impediments to achieving their goals, in particular, with regard to addressing climate change and social inequalities.
So far, the reports have achieved their ability to persuade and change ideas about what to do in the EU and how to go it, even if all parties go not agree. Schmidt argues that they have provided a clear path forward for many policy-makers in EU institutions to move forward.
Vivien A. Schmidt is Jean Monnet Professor of European Integration, Professor Emerita of International Relations in the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies and Professor Emerita of Political Science as well as Founding Director of the Center for the Study of Europe, all at Boston University where she taught from 1998 to 2023. She received her B.A. from Bryn Mawr College and her Masters and PhD from the University of Chicago, and attended Sciences Po in Paris. Schmidt’s research focuses on European political economy, institutions, democracy, and political theory—in particular on the importance of ideas and discourse in political analysis (discursive institutionalism). Her latest book is Europe’s Crisis of Legitimacy: Governing by Rules and Ruling by Numbers in the Eurozone (2020)—recipient of the Best Book Award of the American Political Science Association’s Ideas, Knowledge, Politics section and Honorable Mention for the Best Book Award of the European Union Studies Association.