The European Union is preparing to launch a major new investment initiative aimed at closing the innovation and scale-up gap with global tech leaders like the United States and China. Announced on Wednesday, the European Commission’s new “Choose Europe to Start and Scale” strategy includes plans to establish a public-private Scaleup Europe Fund with a target size of at least €10 billion ($11.3 billion).

This move marks one of the EU’s most ambitious efforts yet to support high-growth technology companies within its borders. The strategy reflects growing concern in Brussels that Europe is falling behind in the global race for tech dominance. Despite a robust scientific base and a thriving early-stage startup ecosystem, Europe lags far behind the U.S. and China in producing “unicorns” — privately held companies valued at over $1 billion.

Europe’s mass-market car business is running on too much metal and not enough buyers. A decade of capacity built for growth now collides with a softer post-pandemic demand profile, rising capital costs, and a new cohort of Chinese brands that are perfectly content to fight on price. Plant utilization across the continent has sagged to roughly half of rated capacity, far below the 70-80% rule of thumb where factories earn their keep.

In that math, every shift that isn’t full bleeds cash, and the difference between a viable site and a stranded one is measured in a few percentage points of volume that never arrive. If Chinese brands sell on the order of two million cars annually in Europe by 2030, which is a plausible glide path given this year’s share, they will effectively displace the output of about eight European plants.

French President Emmanuel Macron recently stated that his government would “take back control” of electricity prices by the end of the year, without detailing the specific steps. This has implications as European Union countries negotiate a reform of how power prices are calculated across the bloc…