Europe does not lack innovation.
It lacks scale.
European universities produce world-class research, engineers and technology. But too many companies remain trapped inside fragmented national markets instead of scaling immediately across the continent.
The numbers are clear:
→ EU private R&D investment growth has slowed sharply
→ Europe’s share of global corporate R&D investment has fallen from 21.4% in 2014 to 16.2% in 2024
→ Europe still has too few large tech champions because companies face fragmented regulation, smaller capital pools and slower growth financing
→ Startups must expand country by country instead of scaling through one fully integrated market
Europe’s innovation problem is not creativity. It is market size, capital depth and speed of scaling.
A continent with world-class talent cannot keep turning great research into small companies.
Europe needs one real market for innovation.