Panel
How Investing in Europe’s Competitiveness Can Spur a New European Renaissance | MEA Summit 2025
Milken InstitutePetra Freddi, Lucie Berger, Pablo Casado, Jean-Baptiste Fantun, Vincent Levita, Andrea Rossi
- The panel anticipates a European investment renaissance driven by the "Investing in Europe's Competitiveness" initiative, the implementation of the Draghi report, and a projected 10-year window of potential success if capital is deployed effectively.
- Significant capital is expected to flow into green transition, digitalization, artificial intelligence, defense, and real assets as banks retrench balance sheets, with a specific 200 billion euro mobilization planned via the "Invest AI Initiative" for infrastructure.
- Specific infrastructure targets include the construction of 10 AI factories and 5 giga factories, alongside a "middle market" consolidation of the defense industry to address a capability gap projected to take decades to fill.
- Key investment destinations and enablers include the UK, viewed as highly attractive due to the Mansion House Compact and improved EU relations, and a predicted 10-year future where EU member states unify through the "28th regime" to scale AI companies.
- Deregulation and structural reforms are expected to accelerate, including potential waivers of German financial discipline ("German bazookas"), changes to the Solvency II framework, and the urgent creation of a Capital Market Union to support private credit and real assets.
- Market risks include an acknowledged "AI bubble" that will likely settle, leaving only traditional AI companies with established trust, while the end of the "peace dividend" necessitates a shift toward self-sufficiency in a multipolar, protectionist world.
- Long-term drivers for investment include the necessity of building sovereignty and resilience in energy, defense, and digital sectors, alongside critical needs in education and healthcare for an aging continent.
- Success over the next decade is defined by balancing competitiveness with social values, with a retrospective review of these predictions scheduled for 2035.