Europe must act united and become a "deeper union, capable of expressing a foreign policy and defense policy" or it will not survive except as a simple single market. This was reported by former Prime Minister Mario Draghi in his speech at the Global Boardroom conference organized by the British newspaper "Financial Times". Draghi has been commissioned by the European Commission to prepare a report on how the EU can deal with the erosion of global competitiveness. "We should be very concerned about this," said Draghi, who said that "the European economy has lost competitiveness over the last 20-plus years, compared not only to the United States but also to Japan, South Korea and, of course, China". "In many, many technological areas, technological fields, we have lost presence, we have lost footprint," the former European Central Bank governor added. "The geopolitical and economic model on which Europe rested since the end of World War II has disappeared," Draghi said in his speech. The former Prime Minister went on to identify the continent's low level of productivity, high energy costs and lack of skilled labor as weaknesses.