April 19, 2026

Legal Barriers to Draghi’s €800 Billion Climate Investment Target: How Regulatory Fragmentation and Permitting Frameworks Undermine EU Competitiveness

By Stephanie Nahmia* and Sam Namias** Former President of the European Central Bank (“ECB”) Mario Draghi identified, in his recent report on European competitiveness, an annual investment gap of €750-800 billion (around 4-5% of EU GDP) to decarbonize the economy and restore competitiveness in the European Union (“EU”). Current legal frameworks obstruct capital deployment through fragmented capital markets. This article dissects these barriers by exploring banking and finance law constraints on mobilizing private funds and examining regulatory fragmentation as a competition law distortion undermining the Treaty of the European Union (“TEU”). Draghi’s investment target presupposes that Europe can mobilize private […]