“Our meeting on Friday – Charles Michel went on to write in his invitation letter to the two-day gathering in Budapest – will be dedicated to strengthening our competitiveness. The situation is very worrying. Over the past 20 years, the EU’s share of world GDP has halved. We need to act now. We are at the eleventh hour. The Draghi and Letta reports are a wake-up call that we must be ready to take. The Union’s competitive survival is at stake”. “Our discussions, in the presence of Professor Draghi and President Lagarde, will cover concrete strategies to reverse our current trajectory and will allow our companies to prosper” with “strategies that promote innovation, harness the strengths of our single market and support sustainable growth. I would like us to have a genuine political exchange on how to finance our ambitions and what instruments we have at our disposal. I am confident that by leveraging our collective strength we can make significant progress that will lay the groundwork for the months ahead”. Finally, a farewell from his post that Michel will quit at the end of November: “On the eve of my last European Council, I would also like to thank you for the trust you have placed in me. I am convinced that our strength lies in our unity. This requires trust and respect among the 27”.