Incrementalism Traps Europe’s AI Catch‑Up

Europe’s firms and policies optimize for incremental improvements inside incumbent sectors instead of enabling creative destruction; rigid labor laws, hard bankruptcy procedures, and a fragmented market make starting, failing, and scaling new tech businesses unusually costly. That combination leaves Europe vulnerable to being outcompeted in platform and AI industries even where it has strong legacy manufacturing. — If true, the diagnosis implies targeted institutional reforms (bankruptcy, labor flexibility, single‑market deepening, scale‑friendly funding) are necessary levers for Europe to regain technological competitiveness and strategic autonomy.