A New Industrial Revolution for Europe
By Jan Mortier
We Europeans need to build a new positive vision for the people of the world. The question to build a better world is: How can we make the world more stable, peaceful and more prosperous?
The answer is to radically increase our factor of civilization by catalyzing a socio-economic transformation of national and regional economic spaces. Governments, companies and civil society can collaborate to build a New Industrial Revolution and renaissances in their regions in partnership with their neighbors and trading partners.
The outcome of this transformation will be a new high-tech, high-GDP growth European civilization that has modern, clean cities with no pollution, increased human health and happiness and a civilization that condenses time and space with a massively upgraded transport and information architecture.
Every government wants to develop and to modernize their economy. Every government wants to be able to maintain a prosperous and healthy population that is well fed, has clean water, and to attain a world class level of development. Grand cities, good infrastructure and prosperous industries that will attract a high level of inward investment, offering plentiful jobs for their people. I propose a tangible way for the governments of Europe to rapidly develop their nations into a very high-tech economy through a New European Industrial Revolution within only a decade.
The key steps to enable this industrial revolution are.
• A structural upgrading and streamlining of the European Political Architecture.
• The rejection of the current socio-economic narrative of the competition between nations and its replacement with a new model of “Partnership and Prosperity for All.”
• A shift towards Directed Capitalism catalyzing massive investment by corporations, investment funds and governments in a new Infrastructure Mega-Projects.
• Transition to and construction for to an off earth resources space economy.
• A Hyper power Europe transforming its neighborhood and then the planet by opening up a road map to integration for all nations.
What do the People Want?
The people want jobs, competent government, a simpler and more responsive political architecture, a stable and safe society and a prosperous economy. In short, a socio-economic system that can deliver on these needs.
Governments must deliver on these needs and must understand that if they do not allow the political architecture to go through an evolution that revolution may ensue as governments fail to deliver the economic conditions conducive to job creation and full employment.
The time is overdue for a radical transformation of government into a construct that is more open and more responsive to the people’s needs and more able to enact a common budget and plan for the economic and human development for the citizens and neighbors of each global region.
A directly elected executive President of the European Union - accountable to the 500 million citizens of Europe.
A New Paradigm of “Partnership and Prosperity for All.”
It is a myth that people, nations and companies must forever compete in a market place; that conflict and war are an inevitable state of human affairs and that human beings have the right to take whatever they want from and do anything this planet of which we are an integral part. To ensure the survival of human civilization a new paradigm of human understanding and humanity’s place within the Earth systems and cosmos is required. Such a transformation will take time, however if mankind can reach a higher technological and social factor of civilization, this realization and transformation to species consciousness will occur.
Europe is uniquely placed among the world’s civilizations to outline and build a new path for human development according to this vision. However, first it must undergo its own transformation and this can only be done by ending poverty within Europe and in its neighborhood and creating prosperity and peace for all along a new model of long-term cooperation for socio-economic development.
There is a new paradigm of socio-economic development in India and Japan. The basic objective is to foster a trustful relationship between two or more countries in order to empower the economies of the countries concerned creating peace and prosperity multipliers. Nepal has formally joined the partnership and the French government has tentatively become an interested party. I propose that the corporations replicate this model across the European space.
India’s Trillion Dollar Infrastructure Plan.
Western corporations and governments should emulate India’s infrastructure enterprise and one trillion dollar infrastructure plan. The investment comprises of a mixture of public and private funding, through a combination of borrowing, bonds and their respective budgets. According to Deloitte, the EU investment target of one trillion USD will critically depend on successful reliance on alternative source of financing to bank loans, such as the bond market, with 48% coming from the private sector.
Public Private Partnerships and People (P4).
There is model of development for urbanization that is being promoted by H.E. Narendra Modi the Prime Minister of India, who applied this model in the state of Gujarat while he was governor resulting in only a 1% unemployment rate there. Prime Minister Modi says that “for any government to be successful, public participation in policy formulation as well as execution is a must.” With Public Private Partnerships and People (P4) “The people assume ownership of the project and work towards its success.” Allowing people to be active rather than passive participants in projects ensures good results. Europe can learn from this if the people are to become motivated to transform from mere passive consumers into pro-active participants of a new industrial revolution.
How the Private Sector can Create a Profitable Industrial Revolution.
The Japanese private sector is the biggest creditor in the world with net foreign assets of US$2.93 trillion in 2012 and US$7.28 trillion gross foreign assets. The corporations of Japan have invested their capital in the Indian infrastructure projects, in particular the $90 billion Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) covering 1483 KMs. The DMIC comprises seven new cities, nine industrial parks, three ports, six airports and a 1,483 km high-speed rail and road line will be developed with trading hubs. The project, spans six States: Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. In addition to this, to accommodate India’s rising population. the government plans to build 24 new smart cities. Including Dholera at 903 sq km, twice the size of Mumbai which will be located in the DMIC and was mentioned in the Indian Finance Minister’s speech as one of the key projects to induce growth along the corridor. It is widely held by government officials and investors that the urbanization and construction of new cities in India will create 9% GDP growth for India.
Directed Capitalism - Investing as Stakeholders for Prosperity.
Rather than the short-termism of fly-by night investing and withdrawing capital as soon as profit is reached, the Japanese corporations are very much committed as long-term stakeholders in the Indian economy and communities, who require by local state law certification of sustainable and community focused development from investors. Up until recently there were also percentile limits of ownership in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) which limited the excesses of fly-by-night investment although the recent trend has changed towards 100% foreign owned FDI.
From April 2000 to March 2013, India has received USD$14.55 billion foreign direct investment from Japan. Since 2002, bilateral commerce between the two nations has increased six times and in 2014 stood at US$18.77 billion. Over 1,000 Japanese companies have set up offices in India and have created over 1,500,000 jobs in the country. The government of Japan has recently approved a 40 year $1.5 billion loan for the DMIC.
France is the first western nation to join this partnership by offering a loan to India of $1.4 billion dollars for infrastructure and urban development projects, at a visit to India by French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius. However, the capital residing in France or Europe could equally be invested in a European Industrial Revolution and the capital residing in America could be invested in an American Industrial Revolution providing there is proper government support and frameworks.
Can the India-Japan Model be Applied to Europe?
The Europe 2020 Project Bond Initiative is a joint initiative from the European Investment Bank and European Commission that should be absolutely supported by states and companies. The initiative is intended as a pilot model to fund infrastructure financing worth more than four billion Euro in the transport, energy and information and communications technology sectors as a way to meet the investment needed in these sectors. Although the European Commission has stated that up to two trillion is needed to meet the Europe 2020 objectives in these sectors. Top down government or banking initiatives are not as dynamic as lateral private and public partnerships as has been shown by the Indian government – Japanese corporations model. To initiate a multi-billion or even multi trillion industrial revolution in Europe and its surrounds, the corporations of these regions should take their own initiative and the governments and European institutions should facilitate optimum conducive conditions, and underwrite the projects with matched investment.
The EU’s lack of a coherent foreign or defence policy reduces its strategic importance and makes it an irrelevance compared to its Member States bilateral relations to emerging superpowers such as India, although it has far more focus on China. With an upgrading of the European architecture with a simultaneous revisions of national and European legislation that might hinder an Industrial revolution, the corporations of Europe could be convinced to put their capital to good use provided good returns are guaranteed. A win-win situation for governments who want jobs for their citizens and GDP multipliers and the corporations who want a good return on their invested capital that would otherwise depreciate over time within the low interest paying banks.
Where Will the Money Come From?
According to the Economist there is fifty trillion of capital managed by pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, insurance companies and other institutional investors, yet only 0.8% is allocated to infrastructure. These types of funds look for long-term reliable returns. Infrastructure is widely regarded as the ideal project for long term returns, in particular if underwritten by governments. Furthermore, the majority of these funds have their head offices located in London. These funds are unlikely to move jurisdictions, i.e. to Brussels or Frankfurt as the fund managers were educated in London and after careers working around the world, returned to school their children there.
The CEO of the London Stock Exchange Group (at the time), Xavier Rolet, said that there are trillions of Euros sitting in banks with no velocity and in the UK alone, companies are sitting on £69 billion of unproductive working capital. Further funding could stem from governments of sovereign wealth funds primarily those in emerging economies which have access to a pool of funds, exceeding 20 trillion. There is 20% of capital in the world’s two largest economies that is not being utilized and this could be worth at least ten trillion US dollars.
In today’s economic climate banks and corporations are likely to retain capital account surplus rather than lend. However banks are no longer giving a good return on investment on surplus accounts, so it is in the interest of corporations and sovereign and private funds to invest for high returns over the long-term in excellent infrastructure projects provided that governments can provide the optimum conditions and guarantees.
The resources clearly exist in the human economy to achieve this, however, they are located across a wide range of locations Europe and America and leaders must think globally to attract the investment and must come up with a convincing plan to prompt the corporations to release their dormant capital into infrastructure investment.
What would it look like? What Infrastructure for a New Europe?
Europe should embark on a multi-trillion dollar infrastructure investment plan that includes the construction of new cities, ports and transport routes, not only for the new Chinese Silk Route, but within the European Territory and to create a genuine shared civilization and trading zone in the Mediterranean and, once peace ensues, in the Ukrainian and Russian areas.
This new vision for human development is to build smart cities that respond intelligently to the needs of the people that have zero atmospheric, ground and water pollution. Europe can offer a new model for the future where city centres are all pedestrianized; urban living is designed to operate in harmony with nature and where nature is an integral part of the organic urban design and where atmospheric pollution is outlawed.
The EU population will grow to 525 million by 2050 and will need vast amounts of new housing. The post war housing, shopping and industry stock of no architectural significance or beauty should also be in the majority demolished and replaced with new sustainable smart housing and buildings, resilient to the temperature swings caused by climate change, more in harmony and inclusive of nature and reflective of individual crafts and trades and community design with an emphasis on aesthetics rather than mundane functionality.
Seoul in South Korea enjoys citywide WIFI access with speeds up to 100Mbs and plans a network 1000 times faster post 2020. We in Europe should do even better and build an internet bandwidth and speed of such a high capacity that it will radically transform economies and human living. City wide free access zones to small businesses and enterprises would also have GDP multipliers.
A new and vastly upgraded energy transmission infrastructure will also be needed between the economic centres, requiring a new framework of mega-capacity power lines, transformer stations and new power-station’s. Millions of jobs and multiplier industries would be created by requiring that all land based public transport and every car in the European Union and United States to run only on electricity. Human health and productively would radically increase. A society is possible where food and water is cheap and abundant, and absolutely protected by law from the 45,000 harmful additives in the human food chain and plastic food wrappers are replaced with natural materials. High speed Maglev, Hyperloop and ET3 trains and mass transport systems can link every European major economic centre with urban centres enabling people to travel across the union, and from Paris to Moscow or Ankara in only a matter of hours.
Advancements from Silicon Valley in technology and science such as nano-technology and Artificial Intelligence will also exponentially change and radically transform human health care and the nature of the European humanity. Here the governments of Europe must progressively legislate to define and retain what is human before this is changed by human-cyber interfaces, genetic engineering and artificial intelligence all of which are a threat to what we know as the sanctity of life and the human being.
The human economy is about to be expanded into space in the quest to secure new resources. Space ports will become as common as airports and where education could be retooled for enlightenment and the advanced skills required for a high tech civilization. In 2008, the overall world space market was worth almost US$272bn. Today, it is worth US$314bn. Between 2000 - 2008, the space industry had experienced growth figures of between 7-8% annually. Since then, China has built a fourth spaceport on Hainan Island to the cost of US$730million and conducted fifteen launches in 2013 alone. Out of China’s six space cities the largest, Dong Feng Space City in Gansu Province, measures 2,800 square-kilometres and is home to 30,000 personnel. I estimates the combined expenditure of Europe’s national space agencies, excluding the ESA, to be at US$7.3bn between 2009 – 2014. However, despite this, Europe possesses only one spaceport and has launched a mere seven times.
Europe and Russia – A Roadmap to Peace.
One cannot consider the future of the Europe without mentioning its biggest neighbour: Russia with a GDP of $2 trillion and a population of 143 million and who have a common historical thread of Byzantine Christendom and defence against the Ottomans. In today’s geopolitical climate, heresy this may be, but I’m banking on peace and rational thinking breaking out. Or this proposal for a roadmap to peace could be for post-war reconstruction.
To build a roadmap for a prosperous civilization and a European Industrial Revolution in partnership and prosperity for all we need to look far beyond present horizons and problems. With Russia's incursion into Ukraine resulting in $28 billion of value lost from the MICEX, capital flight worth several billions; the downgrading of Russia to the lowest investment grade credit rating of BBB- , geopolitical and military operations do come at a cost. That said defence spending in Russia is 3.5% of GDP compared with the EU's at 1.63% of GDP. Russia also has exports of $5.95 billion compared to the EU's $5.44 bilion. But the EU trumps Russia with $16.63 trillion of GDP compared to Russia's $2.01 trillion. In 2025 Russia's population was
The trade between both Russia and the EU is important to both and in 2013 was worth 438.39 billion dollars. EUR326,253 million (EUR326.3 billion) of that the total value of the EU imports from Russia were 277,4 billion dollars. 77.8% of which was fuel at a value of $215.80 billion (160,6 billion euro). Work should be done to restore a good trading relationship and rebuilding trust towards potentialities for partnership for mutual prosperity and peace to share in the new European Industrial Revolution.
Why Should We Do it?
Despite present geopolitical difficulties which will no doubt be overcome if the world economic system can be transformed into a more equitable model, the world of 2050 will see the loss of land and ocean based ecosystems en masse, mass migration flows from climate and poorly run nations, many more structural security problems resulting from the deprivation and poverty of those unable to participate in the economic system and the great powers going to war as they compete for finite Earth based resources vital to their industry and security.
We can choose to create a new economic and political reality for Europe and the world. We can choose to build a positive narrative now of partnership, nations and corporations collaborating to solve the global challenges and create mutual assured prosperity in a world of dialogue and the rule of just laws. Europe has a very good model to offer and can and must play a large part in this.
Releasing the dormant capital from the corporations will initiate an industrial revolution in Europe which will give us twenty to forty years boost in Europe’s GDP and human well-being across the European continent and in participating neighbour nations. Energy has always been the key driver for every increase in human industrial and economic activity; so we need a revolution in energy supply. The present supply is running out and wars will increase to secure remaining reserves. With a new energy supply, transmission and distribution regime real transformation of the European civilization and the world will occur, heralding exponential evolution of the European economy, creating many GDP multiplier industries and technological possibilities for Europe and its partner nations.
A new European space economy will kick-start industrial revolutions in key nations across Europe and the world, spawning thousands of ancillary industries, employing hundreds of millions of people and creating new wealth for all of the stakeholders involved. All in the spirit of partnership, peace and prosperity.
All of this can be achieved not in hundreds of years but in only decades. Public Private Partnerships between European governments, corporations and finance should lead the way to consciously design a New European Industrial Revolution. The profit and prosperity to be gained from such a great endeavour across all industries are formidable. And the investment required into the catalysts that will instigate this next phase of European globalization is modest in comparison to other national expenditures. With this model, Europe could see a return to progress and prosperity for its people and peace for its neighborhood.
End.
Jan Mortier is the founder of Civitatis International. He was also the Rapporteur for the World Political Forum- a discussion forum of former heads of state- in its early years. An earlier version of this paper was first presented at the New Policy Forum, France in 2014. — Article published, Rome, 28 October 2026.