Reports
Published: 9 September 2026

Leaders for European Growth and Competitiveness First Edition 

Europe holds a rare combination of strengths: industrial know-how built over centuries, a consumer market of 450 million people, abundant household savings, a science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) talent base that outpaces many competitors and a stable, transparent and predictable institutional environment. At a moment when foundational infrastructure networks, from renewable energy to AI systems, need rapid buildout, the EU offers access to all these at once.

Europe holds a rare combination of strengths: industrial know-how built over centuries, a consumer market of 450 million people, abundant household savings, a science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) talent base that outpaces many competitors and a stable, transparent and predictable institutional environment. At a moment when foundational infrastructure networks, from renewable energy to AI systems, need rapid buildout, the EU offers access to all these at once.

The Leaders for European Growth and Competitiveness is a multistakeholder platform created to accelerate structural reforms to deliver the energy and industrial transition. Written in collaboration with Accenture, McKinsey and Oliver Wyman, the first edition of the Leaders for European Growth and Competitiveness Annual Report presents solutions across four interconnected themes. These include 1) Clean and Competitive Energy and Industry, 2) Technology and Innovation, 3) Financial Markets, and 4) External Partnerships.

Europe possesses the proven models and available resources required. With coordinated leadership, it can unlock sustained, rapid implementation, strategic partnerships and the capacity to act at the scale demanded by today’s challenges.

Contents

Click on a chapter to read

Foreword
Executive summary
Introduction

1 Overview
2 Context: How crisis serves as a catalyst
3 Challenges
4 Solutions
5 Summary and recommendations

1 Overview
2 Context
3 Building the conditions for competitiveness
4 Leading by example: the power to drive change
5 Summary

1 Overview
2 Context: Finance as a key enabler for European growth and competitiveness
3 Financing Europe’s investment challenge
4 The savings and investments union
5 Enhancing funding supply through mobilizing capital
6 Summary

1 Overview
2 Context
3 Europe’s trade strategy
4 Europe’s outbound investment and development strategy
5 Sectoral analysis: critical raw materials
6 Summary

Conclusion
Contributors
Endnotes

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum reports may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

About us

Engage with us

Quick links

Language editions

Privacy Policy & Terms of Service

Sitemap

© 2026 World Economic Forum