The piece is largely anecdotal and it is difficult to establish a clear relationship between its premises and its conclusion, particularly in the context of the EU legal framework.
The initial dichotomy relating to Argentina is historically inaccurate. On the contrary, the history of Argentina shows that the focus on the economy, missing democracy and fundamental rights, is the reason for the economic decline.
The piece is based on three assumptions: economic prosperity as the sole objective; economic growth as enabling element for all EU interests; and a common free market. However, the starting point remains undemonstrated: economic prosperity does not lead to flourishing EU values if it is not oriented towards these values. Other countries demonstrate economic growth without improving fundamental rights, democracy and the rule of law.
The second argument relates the variety of interests pursued by the EU to internal market fragmentation, but does not provide evidence of a causal relationship (the reference to the ‘recent IMF analysis’ is a broken link, but on the IMF paper see also Bini Smaghi).
The third argument, and the main one, concerns overregulation and related costs. No evidence is provided for either of these elements. The main reference here is to an article by Jian Jia et al., as well as to a working paper (footnote 10). Both of these, which only consider technology venture investment, use investment data from 2014 to April 2019 to assess the impact of the GDPR, which came into force on 25 May 2018. This means their conclusions are based on less than a year of ‘GDPR effect’ and necessarily ignores the period 2019–2025.
It is interesting to note that, as the Draghi report regarding the GDPR costs, the evidence provided consists of poor references that academics would not consider acceptable in a scientific discourse. See Kuner on this.
If these are the founding pillars of the authors’ claim for a new EU regulatory framework, it is evident that their inconsistency affects the resulting claim.
However, when considering this claim, which focuses on economic interests as the dominant factor, it would be advisable for those working at the EUI, which is generously funded by the EU, to recall that the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union has been a core part of the EU’s legal framework since 2000. Furthermore, fundamental rights form part of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. Therefore, economic interests are not the only driver of the EU and must be carefully balanced with other interests. This makes the EU different from other countries and a better place to live.