The president of European patent organizations needs to grasp the opportunities arising from changing dynamics of global trade to regain the loss of competitiveness.
Antonio Campinos said Europe has lost productivity and competitiveness over the past 20 years, while also focusing on regulatory design while paying too much attention to driving innovation.
“We’ve lost productivity when comparing ourselves to the Chinese and the US,” he said.
“We’ve lost our positivity over the last 20 years,” he told Euroneus’ “European Conversations.”
Furthermore, Campinos said that European approaches to developing new technologies are too risk averse. Stiffy experiments and new ideas for fear of failure.
This contrasts with the approach taken in the US, according to Campinos, not a factor in the fear of failure when trying to invent a new product.
And it’s this difference that has allowed the US to gain greater momentum ahead of Europe when it comes to emerging technologies, including AI.
“For example, there is a different risk appetite from the US. The US is not afraid of failure. For the US, failing is the first attempt at success,” he said.
The European Patent Organization has 39 members, including Türkiye and Norway.
It receives approximately 200,000 applications per year. The numbers are extended with numbers from the US and China.
“Compared to the US that received 600,000 applications or China, 1.5 million applications,” he said.
Campinos agrees to an increasing consensus that European regulations are “too far” in one direction, without balancing the need for European regulations to support inventors to create and stay in Europe.
“For example, if you take our competition laws and competition rules, they’re there to protect free competition – that’s good. They’re there to protect consumers,” he said.
However, he also believes that some of the current instability caused by the more protectionist America and the biggest market conflicts with the biggest market against tariffs will present an opportunity for Europe to struggle if leaders and decision makers are willing to grasp the moment.
“Need brings ingenuity and we are certainly struggling. We are deeply struggling,” he said.
“Humanity is never as creative as when we are in need, and when we are in need, the sense of urgency is there.”
He says Europe’s stealth and size are key to its survival.
“We are strong in Europe. We are still a big economic power.”
“And now, geopolitical tensions may even have a strategic opportunity to attract talent, researchers, and attract talented people from the US to Europe,” he said.
The EU’s Draghi report on the future of European competitiveness, commissioned by Chairman Ursula von Der Leyen, called for radical reforms in annual investments and regulations of 800 billion euros in the high-tech sector.
Draghi also warned that if productivity slump continues to be ignored, Europe could die “slow and painful death.”
Campinos agrees that Europe needs to invest more in their homes and maintain European startups.
“Americans have logos. They say they were invented here and made here. So we have to start thinking the same way. What was invented in Europe must be produced in Europe,” he said.
Trade tensions and Trump’s tariffs mean that Europe must diversify into new markets and continue trading with China.
“We can’t rely on the US to protect us or deal with us now. We need to diversify our partnerships.”
Europe needs to “expand free trade agreements with natural partners.”
“For example, you’d say Mexico, we’re north, we’re south, and clearly China’s Canada,” he said.
