Remarks by Kyriakos Pierrakakis, President of the Eurogroup, at the Rencontres Économiques 17:35 Kyriakos Pierrakakis, President of the Eurogroup, attended the Rencontres[...]

We have European champions, we have technology champions in Europe, we have banking champions in Europe. We just need a mentality shift, and the mentality shift is that we shouldn't think in terms of national champions, French, Greek, German, but in terms of European champions. If we don't manage to grow European companies at European and thus global champion status, they won't be able to globally compete in a world that is technologically disrupted in the most drastic possible terms.

Kyriakos Pierrakakis, President of the Eurogroup

In 5G we have the capacity in terms of infrastructure. We have two global champions, one in Finland, one in Sweden. But what did we do as Europeans? Did we create an ecosystem around these companies? No, we still have a fragmented telecom market. We still have 27 auctions for 5G and we will have the same for 6G.

And we don't have a clear strategy. So A, you get your house in order, you fix the plumbing of the European economy, of the European system, to unlock that obvious growth that's sitting there in front of you. And B, you make choices which are strategic, in order to be non-asymmetrically interdependent. You will not be fully autonomous, but the idea is to be less and less dependent, to hedge.