Europe’s ability to compete in the next wave of digital innovation will increasingly depend on something fundamental: energy. In our latest TechTalk, Ann Mettler, President of Catalyse Europe, gave a candid assessment of where Europe stands today and what must change to secure its future. Her message: Europe’s ambitions in AI, clean energy, and competitiveness are deeply interconnected, and progress will depend on addressing them as a system.
Her starting point is sobering. The EU remains heavily reliant on fossil fuels, accounting for close to 60% of its energy mix, with little change over the past 20 years, and it has lost ground in key clean technology industries it once led. “Not a single solar panel gets made in Europe anymore, and our wind industry is on its knees. We basically missed batteries. We never got green hydrogen underway.†This, she argues, is not only a climate concern but increasingly a question of economic strength and technological relevance.
When it comes to AI, Mettler places the debate in a broader geopolitical context, describing it as a race for technological supremacy and arguing that it is important for the United States to “stay in the game, stay ahead,†as it is “imperative that the technology frontier in AI does not reside in a country that is an autocracy.†Europe, she says, enters this race from a weaker starting point because “AI is basically predicated on abundant and cheap energy†and that the EU’s energy policy to date has made it “expensive and scarce,†leaving Europe without the abundant and affordable power now needed for industrial and digital growth. In her view, this requires future policy to look beyond technologies themselves to the supply chains and infrastructure that underpin them. As she put it: “We are seeing the fusion of compute and power in ways that I think very few people had anticipated.â€
Turning ambition into action remains the central challenge. Europe’s broader policy environment is often perceived as slow, fragmented, and complex, making it difficult for companies to scale and innovate at speed. In a global race where competitors are moving quickly, this becomes a structural disadvantage. “As long as Europe is associated with slow, small, complex, we have a problem,†she said.†According to Mettler it will require what she calls the “three S’sâ€: scale, speed, and simplicity and a new, more joined-up approach across energy, digital, industrial, and security policy to reflect the realities of a more competitive global landscape.
Despite the challenges, she also gave a clear sense of opportunity. Europe still benefits from a strong research and innovation base and can lead in areas such as materials development or finding substitutions for critical minerals, and it has many of the technologies needed to optimize energy systems, improve resource efficiency, and advance circularity. For example, with only around 1% of critical minerals currently recycled, there is significant untapped potential to reduce dependencies while driving innovation.
The question is whether Europe can bring these strengths together fast enough to remain competitive in a rapidly shifting global landscape. Ultimately, Europe’s social and economic model will depend on its ability to strengthen its industrial and technological foundations. As she argued: “We always talk about the European model. If we want that, then it’s not optional to have a strong economy that underpins it.â€
Watch the full conversation with Ann Mettler:
About Ann Mettler
Ann Mettler is President of Catalyse Europe, an organization dedicated to accelerating Europe’s clean energy transition. She is a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy and a Board Member of the European Innovation Council. She previously served as Vice President for Europe at Breakthrough Energy and Director-General at the European Commission.
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