Speakers
Session overview
Objectives
Europe’s productivity performance has lagged behind that of the United States for more than two decades, and the gap has widened since the pandemic.
The session will first examine whether Europe’s productivity challenge is primarily a national reform challenge. Participants will discuss the structural reforms needed in major euro area economies, including higher-quality public spending, pension sustainability, labour-market performance, skills development, innovation and incentives for productive private investment. They will also assess how weak productivity growth affects fiscal sustainability, long-term growth and Europe’s social model.
The session will then explore why European initiatives have not delivered stronger productivity growth and investment. The discussion will also draw lessons from the interaction between macroeconomic support, structural reforms and productive capacity.
Finally, the session will consider how Member States and the European Union can work together to restore productivity and competitiveness. It will examine how national reforms and European initiatives can rebuild convergence and confidence, while closing Europe’s technology and innovation gap through deeper capital markets, stronger skills, competitive energy, predictable regulation, industrial policy and faster AI adoption.
Points of discussion
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Europe’s productivity challenge is often discussed as a European challenge. To what extent is it first and foremost a national reform challenge?
To what extent does reviving productivity require rebuilding national economic foundations — fiscal discipline, pension sustainability, labour-market efficiency, skills, innovation and stronger incentives for entrepreneurship and productive investment — particularly in the largest euro area economies?
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What can EU-level initiatives deliver if national economies remain divergent and productive capacity remains constrained?
Can European-level tools — the Single Market, the Savings and Investment Union, common industrial policy — raise productivity while national economies remain fiscally fragile, structurally divergent, and skewed towards redistribution rather than productive investment?