Unveiling the Updated Draghi Implementation Index at the Harvard European Conference 2026
Speaking at the Harvard University European Conference 2026, Antonios Nestoras, Founder and Director of EPIC, unveiled the updated Draghi Implementation Index, offering a clear, evidence-based assessment of how far Europe has moved from diagnosis to delivery on competitiveness reform.
As of January 2026, 15.1% of Draghi’s recommendations are fully implemented, up from 11.2% in September 2025. When partial implementation is included, 38.9% of recommendations show measurable progress, compared to 31.4% at the time of the first audit.
This represents a +3.9 percentage point increase in full implementation and a +7.5 percentage point increase when partial delivery is included since the launch of the Observatory.
The discussion at Harvard placed these findings in their broader strategic context. Europe’s competitiveness challenge requires both smarter regulation and deeper integration. One without the other will not deliver results. Fragmented markets, slow decision-making, and chronic underinvestment remain the core constraints on Europe’s industrial and technological capacity.
The update also reinforces a central political insight: power flows from integration. Only deeper economic, financial, and political integration will allow Europe to project power globally and protect its model at home.
The Draghi Report already provides a coherent blueprint and has been adopted by the European Commission as the organising principle of the current mandate. The challenge now lies in sustaining reform across the entire European policy ecosystem — beyond the Commission alone.
EPIC’s role is to make implementation visible. The Draghi Implementation Index is a public, open-access instrument designed to track progress, identify gaps, and sharpen accountability over time.
