What will make Europe’s economy greener, more innovative, and more secure?
The new EIB Group Investment Report points to three key drivers for boosting Europe’s competitiveness:
- Large-scale investment in innovation and stronger support for tech startups;
- Better integration of its fragmented single market;
- Simplified procedures and lighter bureaucracy.
Based on our annual survey of 12 000 European firms and 800+ US firms, the report serves as a roadmap for policymakers and investors, highlighting both the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.
Key messages:
- European firms need domestic market scale to stay globally competitive. Access to equity finance boosts innovation by 13 percentage points.
- Simplification is crucial. Bureaucracy poses a burden for EU firms. About 86% of EU firms employ staff for regulatory compliance, costing 1.8% of turnover (2.5% for small and medium businesses).
- Europe’s strong industrial, research, and trade base positions it to lead the next phase of AI integration in industry and services.
- Europe’s climate leadership is paying off, with EU green tech exports up 65% since 2017 (China 79%, US 22%).
- Targeted investment instruments and EU-level coordination make investments more effective; 16% of EU firms benefited from policy support in 2024.
- Social investment drives economic returns; increasing women’s workforce participation could boost EU GDP by 4%.
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Download the executive summary
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