Enrico Letta
Europe is the largest single market in the world and one of the slowest to act on it. Boards with exposure to the EU face a widening gap between what Brussels signals, what national capitals deliver, and what competitors in Washington and Beijing execute. The question is no longer whether Europe will reform, but which reforms will actually happen, on what timeline, and how to position capital, supply chains, and regulatory strategy against them.
Enrico Letta is a former Prime Minister of Italy and the author of the European Council’s 2024 report on the future of the Single Market, who helps senior leaders read European policy direction with the precision of someone who has written it.
Full Profile
Why organisations work with Enrico Letta
- He authored the defining European policy document of the decade. The Letta Report, commissioned by the European Council in 2024, now frames every serious conversation in Brussels on capital markets, industrial strategy, and the Savings and Investments Union.
- He has run a G7 government. Leaders in a room with him get a view of European decision-making from inside the Council chamber, not from a commentator’s distance.
- He sits at the centre of the institutional network that matters. President of the Jacques Delors Institute, Dean at IE University, former Dean at Sciences Po: the same network that produces the people who will implement what he has proposed.
- He brings a defensible point of view on the one question boards cannot answer on their own. What European reform will actually ship, and what that means for capital allocation, M&A strategy, and regulatory exposure in the next three years.
Biography highlights
- Prime Minister of Italy, April 2013 to February 2014, leading a national unity coalition.
- Author of “Much More Than a Market,” the April 2024 report to the European Council on the future of the EU Single Market.
- Dean, IE School of Politics, Economics and Global Affairs, IE University, Madrid.
- President, Jacques Delors Institute, Paris, since 2016.
- Former Dean of the Paris School of International Affairs at Sciences Po, 2015 to 2021.
- Commander of the French Legion of Honour; Gran Cruz of the Order of Civil Merit, Kingdom of Spain.
Biography
The Letta Report landed on the European Council’s desk in April 2024 and changed the terms of the argument. Commissioned by EU heads of state and written by a former Prime Minister of Italy, “Much More Than a Market” proposed a Savings and Investments Union, a Fifth Freedom for research and innovation, and a Single Market designed for scale rather than fragmentation. It is now the reference document for every serious policy file in Brussels touching capital markets, industrial strategy, and competitiveness.
Enrico Letta ran a G7 government through one of the most difficult passages in recent Italian politics, serving as Prime Minister from April 2013 to February 2014 at the head of a national unity coalition. Before the premiership he held portfolios for European Affairs and for Industry, Commerce and Crafts, and sat in the Chamber of Deputies across multiple terms. The experience gives him a particular kind of authority: he has written policy and he has had to deliver it against a political calendar.
He now anchors the European institutional network from the inside. As Dean of the IE School of Politics, Economics and Global Affairs at IE University, Madrid, and as President of the Jacques Delors Institute in Paris since 2016, Letta works at the intersection of policy formation and executive education. He was Dean of the Paris School of International Affairs at Sciences Po from 2015 to 2021 and served as President of APSIA, the Washington-based association of professional schools of international affairs.
The recognition is from the institutions that matter to the argument. France made him a Commander of the Legion of Honour in 2017. Spain awarded him the Gran Cruz of the Order of Civil Merit. He chairs the Diplomatic Forum of GESDA in Geneva and speaks in English, French, and Italian. For a board trying to understand where European policy is going, few speakers can say, with evidence, that they have written the document everyone in the room will be working from.
Key speaking topics
- European Union policy and strategic direction
- The future of the EU Single Market
- Capital markets, the Savings and Investments Union, and European competitiveness
- European industrial strategy in a US and China context
- Transatlantic relations and geopolitical positioning for European business
- Coalition government and political decision-making at the national level
Ideal for
- CEOs, CFOs, and boards of multinationals with material EU exposure weighing capital allocation against regulatory direction.
- Heads of European public affairs, government relations, and regulatory strategy at financial institutions, industrial groups, and technology platforms.
- Investment committees, asset managers, and private equity leadership teams tracking the Savings and Investments Union and capital markets reform.
- University, think-tank, and policy audiences working on European integration and transatlantic relations.
Audience outcomes
- A specific read on which elements of the Letta Report are likely to move through the Council and Parliament, and on what timeline.
- A clearer view of how European industrial strategy is repositioning against US and Chinese competition, and what that implies for cross-border M&A and supply chain strategy.
- A sharper grasp of the political mechanics inside the European Council, from someone who has sat at that table as a head of government.
- A framework for thinking about European competitiveness that goes beyond the usual binary of Brussels versus national capitals.