Europe’s boardrooms are buzzing, but the continent’s broader economic narrative is more complicated than a string of recent deals might suggest. On November 3, 2025, a series of high-profile corporate moves—Eurazeo’s €240 million CPK Group exit, GTT’s bullish revenue forecast, Nexperia’s regulatory reprieve, Orange’s €4.25 billion MasOrange bid, and Shein’s swift response to French watchdog scrutiny—signaled a continent still very much in play for investors and executives. Yet, beneath these headlines, deeper questions about Europe’s ability to innovate and compete on the world stage are surfacing with new urgency.
According to a roundup from Finance Newsletter, Eurazeo’s sale of its CPK Group stake to Ferrara’s European arm marks a significant shift, handing over a major asset in the food sector. Meanwhile, GTT, the liquefied natural gas (LNG) equipment specialist, reported nine-month revenues close to €600 million and raised its 2025 guidance, now targeting up to €820 million in revenue and €550 million in EBITDA. These numbers hint at robust demand for energy infrastructure across the region, offering a glimmer of optimism for industrial Europe.
Elsewhere, Dutch chipmaker Nexperia is breathing easier: government moves have granted it more flexibility in shipments, a sign that the recent global chip tensions may be abating, at least for now. On the telecom front, Orange SA is doubling down on Spain, launching a €4.25 billion bid to take full control of MasOrange, a deal expected to close in 2026. And in the world of consumer goods, Shein has acted quickly to remove flagged products from its website following scrutiny from French consumer protection authorities—demonstrating just how seriously European firms now take regulatory compliance and agility.
Yet, as Finance Newsletter points out, these deals are only part of the story. Interparfums, for instance, is slimming down by absorbing its holding company and canceling over 60 million shares—a move emblematic of a wider push toward corporate simplification and recalibration across the continent. The common thread? European corporates are moving forward, but the environment they operate in is shifting, sometimes in ways that challenge their very foundations.
That tension—between forward momentum and underlying vulnerability—was the subject of a trenchant analysis published the same day by Wolfgang Munchau in UnHerd. Munchau argues that Europe’s real problem isn’t a lack of technical skill (aptitude), but a loss of the innovative mindset (attitude) that once made it a global powerhouse. "We are the global virtue-signallers who lost our appetite for cutting-edge research a long time ago," Munchau writes, lamenting that Germany’s once-mighty car industry has been overtaken by electric and digital technologies, largely from China. The continent that invented the motor car and laid the groundwork for the computer age now finds itself lagging in both sectors.
It’s a sobering assessment, and one that’s echoed in the numbers. For four decades, Europe has fallen behind the US—and now China—in digital innovation. Regulatory frameworks, from data protection to AI and crypto laws, have created what Munchau calls a "digital desert." Even as Europe maintains a cadre of top engineers, the continent struggles to turn technical prowess into scalable, globally competitive businesses. The UK, notably outside the EU, is identified as a rare bright spot, with AI investments and the Oxford-Cambridge science corridor offering a glimmer of hope.
This sense of missed opportunity is not merely academic. As Munchau notes, the 2025 Nobel Prize in Economics was awarded for work on "creative destruction," the process by which new innovations replace outdated industries. The lesson for Europe is clear: economic benefits from innovation can last for a century, but only if societies keep pushing the boundaries. "Things end unless you keep innovating," he warns, pointing to Germany’s car industry as a cautionary tale.
How, then, can Europe regain its footing? Xavier Vives, writing for ProMarket in a symposium on big business and global competition, argues that the answer lies not in relaxing merger regulations or encouraging market power, but in completing the integration of the European market. "The EU cannot foster big business or supranational champions through changes to competition regulation," Vives asserts. Instead, he suggests, the continent’s unique confederate structure can provide a sound environment for business development—if only internal barriers are dismantled and true market integration is achieved.
The stakes are high. As Vives points out, the market capitalization of each American digital giant—NVIDIA, Microsoft, Apple, Alphabet—dwarfs the entire German DAX stock exchange. The so-called "Magnificent Seven" of US tech (including Meta and Tesla) boast a capitalization about 8.5 times larger than the DAX. Europe, he notes, has led the world in digital regulation, with the Digital Markets Act, Digital Services Act, and AI Act setting global benchmarks. But the continent’s regulatory zeal has sometimes come at the cost of business clarity and speed. Former ECB President Mario Draghi has even called for a "radical simplification" of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), arguing that excessive rules may compromise innovation.
Vives is clear-eyed about the challenges. The EU’s internal market remains fragmented, especially in services and banking, where national barriers still loom large. This fragmentation is a key reason why Europe has failed to develop its own digital giants. Energy markets, too, are divided, as the continent learned the hard way during the Ukraine crisis and Germany’s dependence on Russian gas. Telecoms are another sore spot: spectrum auctions are conducted at the member state level, slowing the rollout of 5G and limiting the scale of European firms.
Market integration, Vives argues, is the only way to achieve the economies of scale necessary for true international competitiveness. Tweaking merger policy won’t cut it. Instead, Europe needs to foster larger, more unified markets, back them with coordinated policies on defense, fiscal issues, energy, and R&D, and—crucially—consider issuing common debt to finance public investment and bolster the euro’s global standing.
For all the recent dealmaking and boardroom dynamism, then, the verdict from analysts and economists is clear: Europe’s future as a global economic force depends less on individual corporate maneuvers and more on its willingness to innovate, integrate, and adapt. As Munchau puts it, "Europe’s priorities are to protect workers and existing industries." But unless it rediscovers the attitude that once made it a leader in invention and risk-taking, the continent may find itself excelling only in museums and monuments to past glories—rather than in the industries of tomorrow.
Europe stands at a crossroads, with its fortunes tied to the choices it makes about innovation, integration, and the rules of the economic game. The coming years will reveal whether its leaders and businesses can reclaim the spirit that once drove the continent to the frontiers of progress—or whether, as some fear, the cycle of creative destruction will leave Europe watching from the sidelines.
