Compete or disappear: Europe and technologies invented elsewhere

Europe risks becoming the continent that regulates technologies invented by others.

And that is one of our biggest problems.

I’ve just finished reading Mario Draghi’s Competere o sparire, after Venti storie dietro ai numeri.

I now read about two books a month on average, plus several technical deep-dives. Right now, for example, I’m reading Agentic AI Engineering and Agentic Artificial Intelligence in the original language.

But back to Draghi.

I share his view

Without deep structural reforms, Europe risks permanently losing competitiveness.

Especially in digital and AI, where the United States and China are widening the gap.

We have skills, capital, industry and research. But we keep behaving like 27 separate markets.

Bold choices

Bold choices are needed.

A federal Europe, able to overcome fragmentation and national interests.

Common defence, with a European army and an autonomous industrial supply chain.

Technological sovereignty, investing in cloud, AI, semiconductors and strategic European infrastructure.

Energy independence, through renewables, nuclear and modern infrastructure.

A single capital market, to finance our companies instead of continuing to divert huge resources to markets overseas.

Less bureaucracy and more innovation. GDPR and the AI Act come from legitimate needs, but they have also introduced costs and complexity. We need simpler, more proportionate regulation that doesn’t penalise those who want to innovate.

And I would add a true single market for startups and innovative companies, able to turn our research into global businesses.

The paradox of 27 markets

The paradox? We have the economic scale of a continent, but we still think like 27 small markets. And that leads to weak bargaining with external partners and suppliers.

As a technology entrepreneur, I see this fragmentation as one of the biggest obstacles to growth.

We shouldn’t close ourselves off from the world. But we need to go back to competing, investing, taking risks and above all building.

Because we can’t expect to keep a central role in the world economy by limiting ourselves to regulating what others invent.

Compete or disappear. And above all, the time available is not infinite.