Davos (Switzerland) (AFP) – After a week of hearing various US officials denigrate Europe, its leaders, and its regulations at Davos, ECB chief Christine Lagarde said Friday that the harsh words could be just what the continent needed. “We have heard a lot of European bashing in the last few days,” Lagarde said at the closing session of the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in the Swiss Alps.
Among the more rankling comments was US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s quip in a TV interview dismissing “the dreaded European working group” in response to potential US tariffs aimed at seeking control of Greenland. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky meanwhile blasted the EU’s lack of “political will” in countering Russian leader Vladimir Putin. “Instead of becoming a truly global power, Europe remains a beautiful but fragmented kaleidoscope of small and middle powers,” he said during his trip to Davos.
Lagarde said such criticism meant Europe would have to face tough realities and find alternative ways of working to make sure it carries weight on the global stage. “I think we should say thank you to the bashers,” she said. “It has given us a complete realisation of the fact that we have to be more focused, we have to work on those Plan Bs that I was talking about, and we have to focus on innovation, improvement of productivity, and the rest of it.”
World Bank chief Kristalina Georgieva, speaking on the same stage, urged countries for her part to focus more on boosting growth as the risks of rising sovereign debt grow. “All of a sudden, 3.3 percent looks like very good growth. What happened? We used to say that growth is not enough,” she told the forum. “Do not fall into complacency. Growth is not strong enough,” she said. “And because it is not strong enough, the debt that is hanging from our necks, at 100 percent of GDP, is going to be a very heavy burden.”
© 2024 AFP
