For the past year, the OECD has been warning about the accumulation of risks and uncertainty that undermines investment and the world economic outlook. Its 2019 global growth projections fell from 3.7 per cent in September 2018 to 3.2 per cent in the latest forecast in May, well below the growth rates seen over the past three decades.

The summer is providing little respite amid heightened trade tensions, the possibility of a no-deal Brexit and renewed market volatility. Brexit alone illustrates the magnitude of these risks: if the UK were to start trading with the EU on World Trade Organization rules, gross domestic product in the remaining EU27 area would contract by around three-quarters of 1 per cent over a few years, with steeper declines in some countries and individual sectors.

In such a challenging environment, Europe will be in a stronger position if further progress is made on economic management across the bloc.