The Rhine Group is the new think tank founded by Mario Draghi, former president of the European Central Bank and former Italian prime minister, and Patrick Collison, co-founder and chief executive of Stripe. Its stated aim is to turn into concrete reforms the competitiveness report Draghi delivered to the European Commission in 2024, a document containing more than 170 proposals on energy, industry, defence, digital infrastructure, capital markets and productivity that has largely remained on paper.
The group was launched on 24 August 2026 and brings together 55 European figures from business, academia and former policymaking. It does not present itself as a European institution and does not intend to replace the Commission or national governments. It aims instead to be a forum where people who usually sit at different tables can come together, with the goal of moving analysis from theory into practice. Executive direction is in the hands of Luis Garicano, a Spanish economist and former MEP who is a professor at the London School of Economics. The legal seat is in Geneva, Switzerland.
The starting point is a position of weakness. In the view of the promoters, only four of the world's fifty largest technology companies are European, and in almost every sector that will shape the coming decades, from artificial intelligence to new platforms, from scientific research to emerging technologies, the continent starts from a disadvantage. This is not merely a question of industrial prestige: it is a matter of economic power and, ultimately, of sovereignty. A low-growth Europe has fewer resources to fund what it considers essential, from defence to healthcare, from pensions to education, from climate investment to social protection.
The message of the manifesto is blunt: "Decline is not inevitable, but it is the direction we are heading in if we do not act urgently." The group overturns a certain defensive narrative about Europe: it does not start from protecting what already exists, but from the need to rebuild the capacity to innovate and to create companies able to compete on a global scale. After all, the promoters note, Europe is not a marginal market: it is the second-largest market in the world.
The geopolitical context has changed. For decades Europe could rely on a relatively favourable international environment, with world trade growing under multilateral rules and the United States guaranteeing a decisive part of Western security. That world, according to Draghi and Collison, no longer exists: the United States has become more protectionist, China is a far more aggressive competitor both in international markets and within the European market itself, and strategic dependencies in energy, technology and industry have become riskier.
The membership includes prominent names across different fields. Among economists and academics there are Nobel laureate Philippe Aghion, former Estonian president Toomas Hendrik Ilves, Beatrice Weder di Mauro, director of the Centre for Economic Policy Research, and Zanny Minton Beddoes, editor-in-chief of The Economist. Among entrepreneurs stand out Tobi Lütke of Shopify, Niklas Zennström of Atomico, Sebastian Siemiatkowski of Klarna, Michael Miebach of Mastercard and Xavier Niel of Iliad. French political presence is assured with former minister Bruno Le Maire.
The Italian contingent is also substantial. Members include economists Francesco Giavazzi and Lucrezia Reichlin, professor Francesco Decarolis, former minister and former Vodafone chief executive Vittorio Colao, and two flagship entrepreneurs: Andrea Pignataro, founder and chief executive of ION Group, considered by Forbes among the wealthiest Italians, with a fortune estimated at around 43 billion dollars, and Luca Ferrari, co-founder and chief executive of Bending Spoons, listed on the Nasdaq last July at a valuation of around 18.4 billion dollars.
The group's first meeting is scheduled for 20-23 September 2026. The agenda is already written: what remains to be seen is whether the Rhine Group can really bring the Draghi report's proposals to the centre of the European debate and turn them into workable reforms.
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