This report identifies three main areas for action to reignite sustainable growth. In each area, we are not starting from zero. The EU still has general strengths such as strong education and health systems and robust welfare states and specific strengths on which to build. But we are collectively failing to convert these strengths into productive and competitive industries on the global stage.
First and most importantly Europe must profoundly refocus its collective efforts on closing the innovation gap with the US and China, especially in advanced technologies.
Europe is stuck in a static industrial structure with few new companies rising up to disrupt existing industries or develop new growth engines. In fact, there is no EU company with a market capitalisation over EUR 100 billion that has been set up from scratch in the last fifty years, while all six US companies with a valuation above EUR 1 trillion have been created in this period