Of the fifty largest technology companies in the world, only four are European. In every emerging technology that will shape the coming decades, Europe is weak.
The stakes are existential. If stagnation continues, the continent will progressively lose the ability to fund the core obligations of a modern state: defence, public healthcare, pensions, education, climate investments and safety nets for those who lose their jobs.
For decades, a favourable world cushioned this decline. Trade grew under multilateral rules. The American security umbrella freed up defence budgets. Dependencies seemed mutual and hence harmless. They no longer are. The US has imposed its highest tariffs since Smoot-Hawley. China has become a fiercer competitor, in third markets and inside Europe itself. Europe is in a harder place than when The future of European competitiveness report was released. The European growth model is fading, and we are increasingly at the mercy of external events we do not control.
Decline is not inevitable, but it is the direction we are heading unless we take urgent action. The alternative is to do what Europe has done before: compete, build, and grow again. We are not a middle power, but the world's second-largest market.
