Europe must mobilize private investment to revive competitiveness

McKinsey calls on Europe’s private-sector leaders to accelerate multi‑billion investments and partner with the public sector to close the continent’s competitiveness and investment gap.

• Main announcement/action: McKinsey recommends mobilizing €1.2 trillion in private and public investment annually for the next five years, focusing on unleashing 10–20 multi‑billion‑euro projects, plus advancing regulatory reform; it highlights direct private‑public examples such as ASML’s €2.5 billion Project Beethoven and regional cluster investments to scale strategic industries.
• Background and details: The article documents recent momentum and concrete commitments: €300 billion raised by Europe‑focused private equity in the first nine months of 2025; KKR deployed $20 billion YTD 2025; Blackstone plans up to $500 billion of European investment over the next decade; EQT targeting $250 billion over five years; Schwarz Group committed €11 billion to a 100,000‑GPU AI gigafactory; Germany set a €500 billion infrastructure and climate fund and intends to double defense spending to nearly €650 billion over five years (NATO target 3.5% of GDP by 2029).