EU Dynamism: Part II
Reviving "Made in EU"
This is the second part of a series about unlocking the European Union’s dynamism:
Part II: Reviving “Made in EU”
The first part helped us understand the problem. The second part might contain the solution, part of which we are already witnessing today. Let’s dive straight in.
Reviving "Made in EU"
“Europe is stagnant. The EU is dead. Nothing of value is being created by European companies.” Or so the story goes, often repeated by cynical Europeans and joyful Silicon Valley tech elites. It’s a great story. But it’s just that. A story. And every story has two sides.
We can talk at length about many of the problems plaguing the European Union today. Some of them include:
High bureaucracy slowing everything down
Lack of ambition on a continent-wide level (geopolitical and individual)
Elite syndrome from out-of-touch Eurocrats in Brussels
Low level of competitiveness for decades
These are all real issues and need to be addressed, some more urgently than others. But they are only one part of a much larger and richer picture.
I’m sure you’ve seen one of these “Europe is lazy, they only produce bottle-cap legislation” memes making fun of EU technology and innovation going around.
This was probably funny the first 100 times a US VC posted it on X (and it also does contain some truth, so it was good food for thought). But reality isn’t a meme.
It’s time to push back against such distorted and demeaning snapshots of Europe.
It’s time to ignore the noise and the naysayers.
It’s time for another story to be heard, one that has already started playing out across the old continent: the surprising rise of European-made innovation.
Europe is, in fact, building. A new movement of European techno-nationalism is leading the way. “Made in EU” might not have been possible or even desirable in a previous era. But today, “Made in EU” is a necessity and a statement of intent — Europe is here to compete.
And I’m here to show you how it’s doing it.
The birth of new pro-Europe tech movement(s)
Europe is often rocked by the rise of anti-systemic parties (in the 2010s, mostly from the left; in the 2020s, mostly from the right) that are openly dismissive of the EU project. What we have not seen before was the rise of a new (largely) politically agnostic, tech-oriented and pro-Europe movement.
For the past two years, a wave of technologists have banded together under the concept of of “eu/acc” (European Accelerationism) and have launched a series of initiatives and calls-to-action. These overwhelmingly individual efforts are managing to inspire more confidence in a pan-European renaissance than any public official over the past two decades.
eu/cc is not led by a single individual, although credit must definitely be given to a number of people: Pieter Levels (aka @levelsio) for the original inspiration on twitter back in 2024, Andreas Klinger for leading the charge for real institutional change on an EU level (and pushing for the creation of a pan-European standardized legal entity 'EU Inc' to unlock pan-European investment & innovation), and Duarte Martins who has written extensively and helped popularized the idea (read his posts on eu/acc, the eu/acc charter and also why he decided to move on from eu/acc).
eu/acc is not a panacea and not everything that is promoted under its wider umbrella should be automatically accepted. In fact, I personally have strong reservations about a number of ideas pushed and some of the individuals trying to capitalize on this movement. Many stakeholders are trying to take advantage of this new trend in European tech, some of them with less benign interests than others.
But the momentum is undeniable. And that’s what matters. A swath of European techies are championing a new vision for the continent, one that breaks down barriers to innovation, simplifies legislation, reduces fragmentation between countries and supports cutting-edge technologies. And they are putting their money where their mouth is, building from and investing in Europe.
Investor Pia Michel is doing a “Grand Tour of Europe”: each month, she plans to visit a different European country and share some of the most interesting discoveries there. Startup Pirate Alex Alexakis started Ad Astra, a short-form docuseries to tell the stories of ambitious Europe-bred technologies. Greek startup consultancy Borrn has started EUROPE BUILDS, a podcast to uncover the stories of European founders. The Collison brothers have dedicated an entire section in Stripe’s latest Annual Letter on European prosperity.
The latest addition to the group? Popular podcaster-VC Harry Stebbings has just launched a 10 million euro fund called Project Europe to help drive European innovation. The fund is backed by 150+ European founders and aims to invest in 10-20 fresh entrepreneurs each year.
These are just some of the many organic attempts to elevate European technology, innovation, science, entrepreneurship, and quite frankly, also its collective level of ambition.
But that’s only one variable in the equation. There are a few more.
EU leadership finally getting serious
For decades, the EU was seen as a place where innovation went to drown in endless paperwork. The European Commission was more focused in refereeing than competing in technological and financial markets. That’s changing. The focus is now shifting from just regulating tech to actually leading it.
Pushed by external forces (geopolitical tensions and its changing relationship with America) and internal dynamics (aging continent, competition problems, inflationary tensions), top EU decision-makers have realized its time to stop playing catch-up with US and China. For the first time since the creation of the EU, Brussels is putting serious money on the table and shifting strategic resources towards supporting homegrown innovation instead of just policing it.
In recent weeks, the European Commission has:
presented the Competitiveness Compass, a path for Europe to become a leader in future technologies and manufacturing
announced €100 billion in short-term relief to supercharge EU-made climate-friendly manufacturing
unveiled an initiative to mobilize €200 billion for investments in AI, including a new European fund of €20 billion for AI gigafactories
pitched a €800 billion defense package to boost EU’s collective security
With billions earmarked for AI gigafactories, clean manufacturing, and defense, this isn’t just a policy shift—it’s a survival strategy.
“Buying European” is now cool
Less than two months after President Trump’s (second) inauguration, the era of American Exceptionalism seems over. Together with it, the Transatlantic Relationship between the US and Europe has come very close to a breaking point. While this might change over the course of the next decade (and perhaps with a new President in the White House), this new paradigm has unleashed new forces in Europe that are hard to contain.
President Trump might have started by promising to Make America Great Again, but so far it seems that he has managed to offer one of the most unexpected puns for journalists around the world: “Make Europe Great Again”.
This is not a coincidence. The US pullback from the European security apparatus coupled with the continuous (and escalating) threats of US tariffs against the EU is ushering a newfound push for Europeans to buy locally.
Fear, self-interest, anger, feelings of betrayal, sense of self-preservation — while there are different motivations guiding Europeans in response to the Trump administration’s language and decisions, the main outcome has been the same: a revival of Europeans wanting to buy locally-made products.
Pages like goeuropean.org (mostly for physical products) and european-alternatives.eu (mainly for digital products) have become extremely popular in recent months, spreading across social media like wildfire. Reddit community r/BuyFromEU has 170k members dedicated to supporting European-made goods and services. Europeans are seeking European options, as well as promoting them over American ones.
While these efforts are for the most part scattershot, it increasingly looks likely to see coordinated attempts of favoring European-made products on an industry-wide, national and even EU level.
Time for companies to shout: “Made in EU”
The day has come. It’s time to proudly wear the tag “Made in EU”.
But what does that even mean? Quick pause for a short history lesson.
In 2014, the European Commission proposed the introduction of a compulsory “Made in …” label for all consumer products sold in the EU. The motivation at the time was to protect European consumers from counterfeit goods, bad quality and fake labels, and also ensure they know the origin of the items they procure. The general “Made in the EU” label would be used for all goods that underwent their last substantial transformation in an EU country.
Championing “Made in EU” is not just a matter of consumer safety. It is also a matter of competitiveness for European products in a world full of cheap and low quality alternatives flooding from abroad. It is now also an existential matter for EU’s ambitions and European entrepreneurs.
The good news is that the European Commission seems to get it and has finally revived this discussion. But we need to go one step further from merely making feel-good public proclamations. We need to make “Made in EU” part of the EC competitiveness strategy. We need to promote “Made in EU” both internally and externally. We need to elevate “Made in EU” to high quality standards. And we need to opt for “Made in EU” products whenever we get the chance.
In recent months, I have started looking for European-bred companies that proudly signal their place of origin on their website, marketing or product placement.
In the digital domain, I have found a few very cool startups that are “made and hosted in the EU”:
tally - simplest forms in the world
Plausible - Google Analytics alternative
Roombelt - scheduling app
Canvastera - multimedia posters
Adding that line is a very simple thing to do. And yet so powerful.
And it’s not just in digital services. You see this change in hard technology too.
Including in the defense domain (check the emoji flags).
And it’s not just in one EU country. It’s many.
It seems like this is a good time to turn "Made in EU" into a mark of excellence, not just one of compliance. Embracing “Made in EU” is not about nostalgia or even protectionism (well, maybe a little, in a Trumpian world of tariffs); it’s primarily about confidence. Confidence that European innovation can compete at the highest levels. Confidence that EU industrial policy can drive world-class breakthroughs. And confidence that Europe’s future is not written by kafkaesque red tape in Brussels, but with bold, world-changing endeavors from its homegrown builders.
The narrative is changing
I recently bumped into the following post on Linkedin.
The full post is worth reading, but one part particularly stuck with me: “I’m proud to be European. And I’m excited to be part of building a future where we don’t admire other regions anymore - we lead, on our own terms.”
Niko is not the only one to be excited. Here is another post.
Here is Mario Gabriele, founder of The Generalist, proudly proclaiming he is “extremely long on European innovation” after coming back to Europe and writing his magnum opus on European Ambition.
These posts are not isolated expressions of optimism. They are signals of a deeper shift.
For the first time in decades, there’s a growing sense that Europe is not just a place where great ideas are born only to scale somewhere else (usually in the US). It is becoming a place where they can thrive, where founders, investors, and EU policymakers can start aligning to turn European ambitions into European reality.
Conclusion
For way too long, Europe has been looked down on and the European Union cast as only a land of bureaucracy, stagnation, and missed opportunities.
The narrative is now shifting. People are not oblivious to the many problems that still exist in Europe. But they now openly talk about the many possibilities it offers too. New tech movements are leading the charge, actively changing the way people think about and build in Europe. EU leaders acknowledge the continent’s competitiveness gap and start investing heavily in innovation. It is now cool to buy European products and also boldly proclaim that you are building from (and for) Europe.
The old continent is moving away from simply preserving its past. It is now gradually reclaiming its future. Contrary to the attacks from its usual critics, Europe is slowly waking up. Much will depend on the speed and intensity of all ongoing efforts, but one thing is for sure.
Europe is back.
And EU Dynamism will be the key to unleashing its full potential.
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I was surprised but glad to see the French government moving away from WhatsApp, Telegram and Signal to adopting homegrown alternatives: Olvid and Tchap, a few years ago
https://sifted.eu/articles/french-government-olvid