A competitive European economy

What should an innovative European economy, fit for future challenges, look like? In my view it should entail an openness to new ideas, new technologies, and new approaches to existing challenges. And as the European Union looks to the future, there is a clear mission for the rewards of innovation to be unlocked, with benefits that will flow to consumers, citizens, and Europe’s businesses.

Political support for a competitive, innovative Europe

In her Political Guidelines for 2024-2029, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen says that ‘Europe has always been a continent of industry, enterprise and innovation reinventing itself through industrial and tech revolutions, global competition and changing societies’, but that ‘Europe cannot afford to fall behind and lose its competitive edge’. I fully agree that investment in Europe continues to be a critical part of building European capacities and skills, providing impetus for EU companies to grow.

The Commission President's Mission letter to Stéphane Séjourné, the Executive Vice-President-designate for Prosperity and Industrial Strategy, reinforces the need to utilise the EU's Single Market more innovatively and boldly. This includes a horizontal Single Market Strategy to modernise and deepen the Single Market, ensuring existing rules are fully implemented, and barriers removed quickly. In addition, an SME passport will be developed to reduce administrative burdens and costs for SMEs. I was pleased to see these recommendations, believing as I do that a functioning Single Market for SMEs is one of the most important opportunities to strengthen EU competitiveness.

Elsewhere, the Mission letter to Henna Virkkunen, the Executive Vice-President-designate for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy, highlights the need to boost productivity with digital technology through, for example, artificial intelligence and investments in the next wave of frontier technologies, such as space, semiconductors, and beyond. This could help advance EU productivity and economic growth, which in turn will enable businesses to scale and thrive in the global economy.

The future of European competitiveness

I read with interest the report on the ‘future of European competitiveness’ by Mario Draghi, former Italian Prime Minister and European Central Bank President, which acts as a backdrop to the Commission President’s direction of travel. I believe that Mr. Draghi’s plea for renewed focus on productivity is key, and that a number of the report’s horizontal recommendations – closing the innovation gap, boosting productivity in high-tech industries, and uncovering new drivers of growth - could help spur a more ambitious, successful, and resilient European economy. These recommendations, coupled with those made by Dr. Letta on the Single Market – which I’ve written about previously - can deliver on the political commitments made by President von der Leyen.

Delivering on Europe’s competitiveness goal

The key to delivering a more competitive Europe lies in harnessing new technology to reindustrialise our economy, and in empowering citizens and SMEs. This political goal is absolutely achievable, and at Amazon we are ready to play our part in its delivery. As I think about the next five years, these four considerations are of the utmost importance:

1. Future-oriented technologies in Europe must be underpinned by a supportive regulatory framework. For example, a responsible and pro-innovation approach to AI is required if Europe is to meet its ‘Digital Decade’ targets, a strategy that could unlock over €3.4 trillion by 2030. We recognise the importance of the EU's efforts to establish effective, risk-based safeguards for AI through initiatives like the AI Act. At the same time, it is also important that the EU regulatory framework enables coherence and certainty, continued innovation, practical application of the technology, and positions European businesses for success in the global economy
2. The EU workforce must have the necessary skills if the EU is to harness the potential of these fast-evolving technologies. This can be done by working closely with the private sector to provide education and training in new technologies.
3. Legislative complexity should not stifle the ability of SMEs to harness the EU Single Market. Harmonization, simplification, and consistent enforcement of existing rules are critical to ensuring a frictionless EU market for SMEs.
4. It is essential that EU policy recognises that retail is hybrid. It should support SMEs to take advantage of all sales channels and provide tools for developing the necessary digital skills. And it should also consider retail consumers’ demand for omnichannel options to meet their evolving needs.

Amazon’s role in driving competitiveness

We all have a part to play in securing the EU’s competitiveness on the global stage, and I’m proud to work at Amazon where we are doing so through significant investment in the EU’s people and technology - €150 billion since 2010, and we currently have 150,000 direct employees spread across 20 EU Member States. Ensuring the European Union has an economic environment that is welcoming to investment will be an important part of delivering growth across Europe in the years to come.

In support of SMEs – the backbone of the European economy - Amazon invested over €8 billion in 2022 into innovative sales tools for our European selling partners, offering them high-tech logistics, cloud, and automation services, and helping them as they sell to millions of customers at usage-based costs.

The story of IVONA Software, a leading text-to-speech technology company based in Gdansk, Poland, which was acquired by Amazon in 2012 and became core to the Amazon Alexa experience, reaching millions of customers around the world.

To help upskill Europe’s workforce, our Amazon Small Business Accelerator has trained more than 130,000 entrepreneurs in digital skills for free in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and Sweden over the last two years. And Amazon Web Services (AWS) has already provided free cloud computing skills training to 31 million people across 200 countries and territories, which surpassed the original goal to train 29 million people by 2025 (more on that here).

Amazon is also committed to the development of innovative AI devices and solutions for EU consumers and businesses. AWS is driving the next wave of secure and responsible AI adoption by making it practical and cost effective for European organisations and innovators to develop and deploy AI solutions to achieve their digital goals. Alongside this, Alexa and its upcoming suite of conversational AI capabilities will deliver an even more intuitive and intelligent experience for customers.

While I don’t agree with all the recommendations set out in the Draghi report, I do applaud the drive set out in it to make the EU more competitive. My team and I look forward to continuing our work with policymakers to achieve this goal.