Speakers at a London conference on June 16 argued that Europe must draw on its large pool of private wealth to fund a sweeping economic transformation if it wants to remain competitive with the United States and China.
"We sit on uro35 trillion ($40.7 trillion) of private savings, which is enough to make all of those transitions," said Benoit Peloille, chief investment officer at Natixis Wealth Management. He added that Europe must "build enough confidence and stability to make sure that private savings dont stay on very low risk assets and go and finance all of those transitions."
Panelists pointed to warnings from high-level voices that Europe risks falling behind unless it coordinates industrial policy more effectively, accelerates decision-making and attracts much larger capital flows. In 2024, former European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi cautioned that without such changes the EU could face a "slow agony" as the U.S. and China push ahead through innovation in areas such as artificial intelligence.
Speakers highlighted recent policy moves as signals that European authorities are starting to respond. Alison Martin, chief executive officer for life, health and bank distribution at Zurich Insurance, noted measures such as the Digital Omnibus Agreement and newly created savings and investment accounts as examples of deregulation intended to encourage greater investment.
"I think the next six months are going to really show us whether Europe will be stepping up," Martin said, underlining that stated policy changes must translate into tangible capital flows and investor confidence.
Still, several participants emphasized the scale of the challenge and the competitive advantages enjoyed by the United States. Nizar Trigui, chief technology officer at global logistics firm GXO, said the U.S. benefits from much cheaper energy prices, more flexible labour laws and a far faster pace of AI deployment.
Speakers also discussed the relative scarcity of very large privately held startups in Europe compared with the United States. According to the UNs World Intellectual Property Organization, the U.S. accounts for 55% of the worlds unicorns - private startups valued at more than $1 billion. The list of high-value companies includes SpaceX, which last week became one of the worlds five most valuable companies following its initial public offering.
Peloille attributed part of the U.S. lead to a more accessible environment for raising capital, calling the shortage of unicorns in Europe "absolutely not acceptable" given Europes global economic weight.
Nadia Calvi, president of the European Investment Bank, said the EU was on the right path but urged faster and larger-scale action. She cited the European Tech Champions Initiative, launched by the EIB in 2023, as having created about a dozen unicorns since its inception.
"European unicorns do exist. Now we need them to get larger and to have more," Calvi said, stressing that policy initiatives must be matched by capital and execution to scale those firms.
Speakers collectively framed the task as one of converting a vast stock of household wealth into productive investment across technology, industry and infrastructure - a process that they said requires regulatory clarity, investor-friendly vehicles and political will. The discussion left open exactly how rapidly private savings could be reallocated and what specific instruments would attract that capital at the scale needed.
($1 = 0.8607 euros)