Last week The Economist led with a story that has got a lot of attention. Describing Europe as “a corporate also-ran”, the magazine asked: can it recover its footing?

The headline stats don’t make for pretty reading. In 2000, nearly a third of the combined value of the world’s 1,000 biggest listed firms were in Europe, as were a quarter of their profits. Since then, those figures have halved. In 2000, 41 of the world’s 100 most valuable companies were based in Europe – which includes Britain and Switzerland – today there are only 15. Apple alone is worth more than the 30 firms in the German blue-chip DAX index combined, and close to the value of all 40 companies in France’s CAC index. I won’t go on.

It’s a theme Tim Wallace also covers in an article for the Telegraph on ‘how Brussels’ complacency turned Europe into a corporate wasteland’. In it, he quotes our Senior Researcher Aria Babu and Adviser Sam Bowman.

The numbers don’t lie. But while I agree with the both articles, I think there are reasons for optimism.

In response to The Economist’s article, Patrick Collison, founder of Stripe, rebutted with a letter in defence of European optimism: “Europe’s tech sector is worth four times what it was just 5 years ago. Europe now attracts 15% of global venture capital, up from 4% in 2014.”

Things can get better too. Collison cites a lot of low-hanging fruit for policymakers, including streamlining the common market, fewer silly regulations (like website cookie banners), better legal treatment of stock options, and easier access to talent. For our part, we could add dozens more ideas to Collison's list.

So, while we can lament the decline of Europe’s corporate behemoths, the next generation is sitting pretty. UK and EU policymakers just need to go out for a spot of fruit picking. Is that really such a stretch?

Status game
On Monday, we’ll release a report from our Head of Innovation Research Dr Anton Howes and Ned Donovan. I don’t want to break our own embargo, but it’s on what we hope will be a popular upstream policy to make innovation, invention and entrepreneurship more aspirational – something that Anton has written about in his award-winning Age of Invention newsletter.

Members of The Entrepreneurs Network will get an email on Monday with a link to the report. It’s free to become a Member. You just need to fill in a form that lets us know what you’re interested in. With such a large and growing network, we’re increasingly just targeting Members in the first instance for events, so I would recommend signing up. You can do so here.

Just a minute
Talking of upstream policies, Nacue’s and Tata's annual varsity pitch has opened up. It’s for anyone currently studying, as well as those who’ve graduated since 2016. There is a prize pot of potentially £15,000 of equity free cash to win. The application only requires a 60 second video pitch and there is even a category for those who only have an idea. Make sure to alert any young people who you think might be interested, as may just be the spark to inspire the next great entrepreneur. Find out more here (more established entrepreneurs may want to scroll down to get details of The Barclays Entrepreneur Awards 2021).