The European Union is falling further behind global rivals on growth and governments are failing to grasp the urgency to act, former European Central Bank president and Italian prime minister Mario Draghi said on Tuesday.

Draghi, who delivered a far-reaching report on EU competitiveness at the European Commission’s request 12 months ago, said the EU’s growth model was “fading fast”, vulnerabilities were mounting and there was no clear path to financing necessary investments.

Draghi said the bloc had come up with ambitious plans, but it was moving ahead too slowly and governments had “not grasped the gravity of the moment”.

“To carry on as usual is to resign ourselves to falling behind. A different path demands new speed, scale and intensity. It means acting together, not fragmenting our

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