00:00If you were still in post, what would be your advice to Ursula von der Leyen?
00:08I think first I would say on the trade side, look for trade diversification.
00:18So try to open more trade with major trade partners, China, Mercosur, Brazil, Argentina, and the like, the Gulf countries, Southeast Asia, Indonesia, big shots, in order to compensate for the loss of market share in the U.S.
00:44And second, apply the recommendations of Mario Draghi and Enrico Leta, who have proposed a sort of plan to re-dynamise, re-make the EU economy more competitive,
01:02because there is nothing like international power without a solid economy.
01:09And for the moment, the potential growth of the EU economy is lower than U.S., lower than China, lower than India.
01:17And third, push more quickly for an integration of EU defence industry in order to grow the military capacity of the European Union as a whole,
01:34not so much in investing more money in defence, but in getting more value for the money they spend.
01:41And it's likely that if the EU defence industry was integrated the way other industries are integrated,
01:51governments and the EU, mostly governments given where the treaties are for the moment, would pay 30% less for the weapons they buy.
02:02So there's a lot of integration on the industrial side, which still remains to be done.
02:09So that would be roughly the sort of, of the cuff, three recommendations I would make.
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