Alexander Wynaendts, supervisory board chairman at Deutsche Bank, said Wednesday that Europe needs to reduce regulations and boost its output to compete with China and the US despite challenges posed by the Middle East war and intra-regional rivalries.

“In Europe, we have to work harder,” Wynaendts said at Semafor World Economy. “We have to work longer hours. We have to be more productive.”

However, “it’s very difficult to make these changes” because of a lack of cooperation between countries within Europe and a challenging regulatory environment for business, he said.

One example of the regionalization of Europe is its 37 telecommunication operators, compared to only three major players in the US, he said.

European banks and other businesses need to consolidate to achieve the necessary scale to attract investment and compete globally, he said.

Wynaendts gave Europe a grade of one on a scale of one-to-ten on fulfilling the recommendations in the Draghi EU Competitiveness Report authored by Mario Draghi, the former European Central Bank president.