The EU’s illusion was shattered in 2025.” According to a report by Italy’s ANSA news agency on August 22, former European Central Bank president and former Italian prime minister Mario Draghi said in a speech that the EU had failed to play a role in major geopolitical conflicts this year and had also yielded to tariff pressure from its ally, the United States. This, he argued, reflects the collapse of the EU’s fantasy of being a “global giant.”
Speaking at an event in Rimini, northern Italy, Draghi said that during the latest round of the Israel–Palestine conflict and the June clashes between Iran and Israel, the EU was merely a “spectator.” Although the EU provided large-scale aid to Ukraine, it played only a “relatively marginal role” in promoting peace negotiations.
He also pointed out: “We had to yield to the tariff pressure from our largest trading partner and longtime ally, the United States. We are under American pressure to increase defense spending—perhaps we should have made this decision in any case—but the manner and form in which it is being imposed may not represent Europe’s own interests.”
Draghi argued that the series of events in 2025 revealed a “harsh reality,” namely that the EU can no longer imagine itself as a “global giant,” nor believe that it can rely solely on its economic size to exert global influence.
“For years, the EU believed that its economic scale, with 450 million consumers, brought geopolitical and international trade leverage. But this year will be marked as the year that illusion disappeared,” Draghi said. “These events shattered the belief that the economic dimension alone could guarantee geopolitical power. Therefore, it is hardly surprising that doubts about Europe have reached new heights.

欧盟的幻想在2025年被击碎。”据意大利安莎通讯社8月22日报道，欧洲央行前行长、意大利前总理马里奥·德拉吉当天在一次演讲中表示，欧盟今年未能在重大的地缘政治冲突中发挥作用，同时也在盟友美国的关税压力下屈服。这一切，他认为，反映出欧盟作为“世界巨头”的幻想已经破灭。
德拉吉在意大利北部里米尼的一场活动上指出，在最近一轮以色列—巴勒斯坦冲突以及6月伊朗与以色列的交火中，欧盟不过是一个“旁观者”。尽管欧盟向乌克兰提供了大规模援助，但在推动和平谈判方面，它只发挥了一个“相对边缘化的作用”。
他还指出：“我们不得不在我们最大贸易伙伴、长期盟友美国的关税压力下退让。美国还迫使我们增加国防开支——或许我们本该做出这样的决定——但这种被强加的方式和形式，未必代表欧洲自身的利益。”
德拉吉认为，2025年的一系列事件揭示了一个“残酷的现实”，即欧盟再也不能把自己想象成一个“全球巨头”，也不能再相信仅凭其经济体量就能在全球发挥影响力。
“多年来，欧盟一直相信，其拥有4.5亿消费者的经济规模能够带来地缘政治和国际贸易方面的杠杆。但今年将被铭记为这一幻想消失的年份。”德拉吉说，“这些事件击碎了那种仅靠经济规模就能确保地缘政治力量的信念。因此，欧洲受到质疑并达到新高度，也就不足为奇了。