Private sector-led efforts around a select number of high-impact lighthouse initiatives can help create momentum and lay the foundation for larger-scale progress. Such initiatives could include creating advanced industrial or vertical AI applications and integrated stacks in finance or healthcare, or launching an industry-driven semiconductor skills and global exchange programme. These initiatives can also pinpoint where the investment environment may need to change to make private business cases positive. These could rapidly change the investment environment as a prerequisite for success. Among many ideas for public sector initiatives, this paper identifies 10 that deserve priority because of their potential to deliver impact at scale fast. Front and centre among these is the need to build and implement a uniform set of investment-friendly rules and regulations across Europe. As ongoing efforts for harmonization and simplification remain challenging, European Union (EU) leaders could choose to put in place a “greenfield 28th regime”13 of unified and radically simple business rules and standards across the EU to move quickly. Other examples include a greenfield time-bound EU- wide digital permitting and approvals system, or the public sector turning into an at-scale anchor customer for radical innovation in healthcare, defence or energy. All stakeholders will need to work hand-in-hand to move from ideas to action. The private sector is well-positioned to identify where and how Europe can best compete and provide an impetus. The public sector is seeking to be bold, as the Letta and Draghi reports show, yet closing the gap may need an audacious mindset, akin to the one that led to the introduction of the Euro, focusing energy on achieving an equally lofty ambition despite all the complexities and risks.Mobilizing action: Private sector-led lighthouse initiatives to create momentum for critically needed change in the investment environment. Unleashing investment – Ten public sector grands projets to create a more investment- and innovation-friendly environment. 2 3Europe can neither lead across all technologies, nor apply the same recipe for them all. This paper identifies tailored strategic choices for 14 significant technologies based on their respective strategic importance, maturity and Europe’s starting point. –Where Europe has a lead, it should defend and expand its global scale and leadership positions, for example in private wireless rollout – carefully reconsidering the potential trade-offs between the benefits of global scale and the risks of domestic market concentration. –Where Europe has strengths in nascent technology areas, it should go all-in on scaling up and commercializing as fast as possible while defending strategic capabilities, such as in quantum sensing. –Where Europe is trailing, this could involve leapfrogging to the next generation of technology in a nascent area (like optical computing in semiconductors) or focusing on vertical niches of strengths, such as industrial AI. –Where Europe is far behind in the race, it might be time to reallocate resources from trying to catch up, for example in cloud computing, towards ensuring investment and capability transfer from global front-runners.Where to play and how to win: Targeted strategy for key technologies. 1 Europe in the Intelligent Age: From Ideas to Action 5

Europe in the Intelligent Age 2025