Build in Europe
It's time to build.
As European nations, we have relied on wealth accumulated over centuries for too long. We got accustomed to the good life, got risk-averse, and a bit stagnant.
There are some exceptions, like Poland (and I can honestly say I'm proud to be Pole these days) or Romania that boosted their GDP since joining the EU (2004 and 2007, respectively) - in Poland, we have a highly innovative banking system, clean and safe cities, improving public transport (better trains and more electric buses, expanding - in Warsaw - metro and tram systems) and our economy is growing to the level where we will soon surpass Japan in GDP per capita.
But we all got lazy, and we rely a lot on foreign technologies - most of our products are manufactured in China, and most of the services (especially digital ones) are built in the US. This is especially true for the backbone of our age - Information Technology and electrification.
We have a long history of innovations on our continent:
- space suit (Spain)
- power transformer
- dynamite
- car
- telephone
- television
- train
- internal combustion engine
- alternate current
- bicycle
- eyeglasses
- parachute
- bulletproof vest
- automatic gearbox
- printing press
- submarine
- steam engine
- jet engine
- vaccines
- x-ray
- antibiotics
- World Wide Web
Europe’s track record of invention – from the Gutenberg press to the World Wide Web – has been instrumental in shaping the modern world.
We have built Concorde; we have Airbus, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the Galileo positioning system, ASML (a Dutch company that produces devices used in chip manufacturing), Siemens, Philips, Nokia, Ericsson, and Volvo (seat belts), as well as Rimac, Bugatti, Porsche, Koenigsegg, Ferrari, and Lamborghini. We also have Revolut, Arduino, Spotify, Skype, Mistral, and Helsing. If we consider the UK part of Europe (which I would, even though they have left the European Union), we also have countless other innovative companies ranging from Dyson, Raspberry Pi, and ARM to Octopus Energy and (now Google's) DeepMind.
Europe is leading the way in tackling some of the most important challenges we face together as a global community. In response to climate change, many amazing research projects across Europe are focused on assessing climate risks, adapting to new challenges, and creating clean energy technologies. Initiatives like the Copernicus Climate Change Service and various projects funded under Horizon Europe's Green Deal highlight Europe's strong commitment to environmental sustainability and its proactive stance in creating solutions for this crucial global issue.
Europe is also at the forefront of sustainable technology and renewable energy solutions. Companies such as Ørsted in Denmark have become global leaders in offshore wind power, while Vestas, also from Denmark, is one of the world's largest manufacturers of wind turbines. Another Danish company, European Energy, is actively developing and operating various renewable energy projects.
We have our issues - no single European legal entity (but there's an idea to create EU INC), a complicated legal system, many different languages, cultural differences, and national interests that may differ, and we are behind other parts of the world in some aspects (EV, AI), but as proven earlier - we can innovate. We have great engineers, and we're getting better at building world-class products for the consumer masses (digital ones).
Some sectors will always be needed and where we can thrive:
- food production
- transportation (keep in mind European cities and countries are much denser than the US)
- heating/cooling
- energy
- healthcare
- military tech
- water treatment
And now, I would also say AI, robotics, and space tech.
If we can focus and innovate in these areas, we can create multi-billion companies and a lot of new jobs - dual-use tech, sustainable food production, new drugs and vaccines, better and more sustainable ways to provide electricity (thus fixed all heating/cooling problems) and improve transportation (I'm bullish on autonomous vehicles, all kind of them)
The "Build in Europe" vision is not about isolation or protectionism but about recognizing and leveraging Europe's tremendous innovative capacity to create products that reflect European values, meet European needs, and contribute to global progress—just as European inventions have done for centuries.
And as recently launched Project Europe shows, I'm not alone in that opinion.
