| So Moses went back and summoned the elders of the people and set before them all the words the Lord had commanded him to speak. The people all responded together, “We will do everything the Lord has said.” [Exodus 19:7-8]
When former Italian prime minister Enrico Letta presented his long-awaited report on the future of the single market to European leaders on Thursday (18 April), he was careful not to play up its significance. “It’s not a Bible, it’s a toolbox,” Letta was quick to stress to attendees of the two-day special European summit, which mostly focused on addressing the bloc’s recent alarming slide in competitiveness. “You have many tools and many possibilities to choose [from].” Notwithstanding Letta’s warning, many already appear to have ascribed the report a quasi-biblical significance. Indeed, much like the Bible itself, the report is almost universally revered although very few people have actually read it. “I’m very grateful for Enrico Letta’s excellent report and presentation today,” said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, adding that the “report is both wide in scope and ambitious in its proposals.” Asked to name the “tools” from Letta’s toolbox she would use if reappointed as Commission president later this year, von der Leyen replied that she could not. “I have not seen the whole width and the richness of the toolbox,” she admitted. Her failure to read the entire report is perhaps understandable, given that: Firstly, it was published just two days before the summit got underway; and secondly, it is 147 pages long. Still, a healthy scepticism about Letta’s proposals is certainly warranted. At the very least, one should surely refrain from describing a report as “excellent” before actually reading it. So what does the report actually say? As it turns out, quite a lot. | 
