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The European Business Intelligence (EBI) issued recently a new report examining the EU’s structural economic transformations during last two decades, and “contextualizing” European “relative decline in the global economic weight”, with the consequential implications for competitiveness, resilience and sovereignty. The EU’s future prosperity depends on “linking competitiveness with sovereignty”: i.e. the EU must transform its institutional stability into a platform for investment, technological independence and human capital development.
Background: profound shifts
Despite strong performance in green process engineering, high‑end manufacturing, and regulation, the EU has struggled to translate scientific excellence into scalable industrial capacity. The EBI’s study identifies critical asymmetries in capital markets, R&D intensity and the conversion of patents into production. It also explores demographic pressures, energy dependence and the uneven diffusion of artificial intelligence across corporate sectors. The EBI proposes an integrated policy framework for the next decade (2025‑2035) that links industrial strategy, large‑scale investment, financial reforms and human capital development. The objective is to reposition the EU as a competitive, secure and technologically sovereign actor capable of sustaining growth and resilience in a multi-polar global economy. Thus, e.g. during this period, the European share of global GDP fell from around 22 to 14 per cent, while productivity growth halved and innovation diffusion lagged behind the US and China. By connecting evidence, trends and policy pathways, the EBI’s analysis provides a factual foundation for the European next strategic decades.
The EBI’s study reveals how fragmented capital markets, huge and slow regulatory procedures coped with the demographic pressures have constrained the EU’s ability to turn research and savings into global economic power.
Thus, during last two decades, “profound shifts in global economic geography” has occurred: i.e. global financial crisis of 2008, the euro-area “sovereign debt episode”, the pandemic, the energy shock following Russia’s military conflict in Ukraine, etc. have cumulatively tested the resilience of the European growth model. Each crisis revealed the same underlying tension: while Europe’s institutional and social frameworks mitigate shocks effectively, they also slow the redeployment of resources toward emerging sectors. The result has been a long‑term downshift in potential growth, with average EU GDP expansion settling near one per cent per year and productivity growth roughly halving compared with the early 2000s.
As the study confirms, this trajectory must be “read alongside the transformation of global production and technology: i.e. the first two decades of this century saw China’s ascent as a manufacturing superpower and, more recently, as a frontier innovator in critical and emerging technologies”; the United States leveraged its deep capital markets and digital platforms to dominate intangible‑intensive sectors, from cloud computing to artificial intelligence.
In contrast, the EU retained competitive niches in pharmaceuticals, industrial automation and green process engineering but struggled to translate laboratory excellence into scalable global platforms. Between 2000 and 2025, the number of European firms among the world’s top 100 by market value fell from more than forty to eighteen, and none of the post‑2000‑founded European companies has sustained a market capitalisation above €100 billion.
Source: EBI Report “On Economic Policy and Financial Regulation Measures: International, EU and Euro Area Levels”, (November 2025), in: https://ebi-europa.eu/ebi-regulatory-report-236/
Note. New European Business Intelligence research (November 2025) is dedicated to turning conversations, expert insights and innovative ideas into meaningful reflections on the complex issues shaping European and global policies. The EBI focuses on producing tangible research and actionable policy recommendations that can assist and guide decision‑makers in the right direction for industrial progress.
The EBI’s mission is twofold: a) bringing politics and business together in order to provide them with an opportunity to debate and pursue their common goals and giving a voice to all sides of the debate; b) providing the EU-wide institutions with a platform where they can place their top priorities in the spotlight and advance the development of new pieces of legislation through discussion with a variety of actors and stakeholders.
Source: https://ebsummits.eu/our-summits/european-business-summit/
EBI report: key takeaways
Under the theme “Choose Europe: For a Resilient and Competitive Future,” leaders from EU institutions, industry, and civil society – during the EBS-summit in November 2025 – outlined next steps to accelerate trustworthy AI adoption, strengthen cyber and defence readiness, mobilise investment in water resilience and turn industrial policy into firm-level productivity.
• Europe’s competitiveness depends on rapid AI adoption: across SMEs, public services,
logistics, industry, energy systems and research. Stable rules, access to compute and skills will
shape uptake.
• Panels across all summit pillars highlighted the productivity imperative, stressing, clean-
tech scaling and the development of cross-border European “scale zones.”
• Cyber and hybrid-threat resilience emerged as essential enablers of competitiveness,
with leaders calling for shared intelligence, coordinated playbooks, and deeper public-private
security cooperation.
• Water resilience became a central investment theme, reinforcing the need for modernised
infrastructure, circular use, digital management systems and blended financing.
• Defence and industrial capacity were treated together, emphasising interoperability,
readiness and the importance of Europe’s manufacturing base in deterrence.
Besides, the report highlights that:
• EU global GDP share falling from 22% to 14%;
• Productivity growth is halving;
• Europe’s presence in the global top 100 companies shrinking to 18 firms;
• Only 13% of EU companies adopting AI at scale;
• Structural underinvestment in grids, clean technologies and digital infrastructure; and
• Rising defence and energy dependencies
Reference to: https://ebsummits.eu/documents/106/EBS_Post-Event_Press_Release_.pdf
Warning signs
The EBS’ report examines both the structural transformation of the EU-wide economy between 2000-2025, and reflecting relative decline in global economic weight and its implications for the European competitiveness, resilience and sovereignty. The paper proposes an integrated policy framework for the next decade (2025‐2035) that supposed “to link” industrial strategy, large‐scale investment, financial reform and human capital development.
The 25th anniversary report “Is the EU falling behind” A comparative analysis”, reveals some “bold steps” into the future of the EU-wide economy at a time of shrinking share of global GDP,
declining productivity growth, slower innovation diffusion, demographic pressures, and persistent investment gaps. The report offers a series of data-driven analyses that provide credible insights to inform strategies, strengthen advocacy, and guide decisions.
The “EU’s falling behind” report “captures a snapshot of the European Union today, contrasts it with its state in 2000 and offers insights and reflections designed to inspire a stronger, more forward-looking European future.
Reference to: https://ebsummits.eu/intelligence/
Among main European corporate community’s messages (to be resolved by the EU institutions) there are the following three: reducing energy costs for businesses, simplifying regulatory operational rules and addressing structural competitiveness problems.
Main source: Business Europe News, Director General Markus J. Beyrer’s interview with the Greek media outlet Liberal (2 December 2025).