“I think today [we need to] stay focused on what is already in the pipeline. So don’t look for any silver bullets, we already have plans — just implement them,” Maciej Witucki, president of BusinessEurope, told Euronews.
“It’s important for businesses, but also it’s important to the citizens of Europe that they see the change.”
In this episode of The Big Question, BusinessEurope’s new president, Maciej Witucki, joined Angela Barnes to discuss the challenges ahead and the need for strong international partners.
What do European businesses need to thrive?
Having spent the past 20 years leading companies in Poland and working directly with BusinessEurope at the helm of Poland’s largest business confederation for the last six, Maciej isn’t new to this world, despite the new job title.
At the top of his to-do list is energy, the major problem plaguing Europe’s businesses.
Maciej explained that fraught geopolitics is speeding up the energy transition as Europe becomes more alert to the fact that we can no longer rely on oil and gas.
An expensive or unreliable supply works for no one.
“I think that we have been concentrating on the decarbonisation of the economy, which is important because nobody, after the heats of the last weeks, will claim that there is no global warming, so we have to save the planet.”
“At the same time, we will not save it if we have no industries, no revenues, no taxes to pay for it.”
Second up on Maciej’s priorities is the single market. A concept since the 80s that the bloc has failed to fully complete.
“Only Europe as a whole can compete with the other superpowers in the world,” Maciej declared.
“This is the enormous unleashed potential of Europe.
“We somehow envy SpaceX for the super rockets. The real single market is a SpaceX of Europe, it’s a starship of Europe because if we really keep those barriers, we have billions of euros which are being lost, [the equivalent] of 50%,” he explained.
Trade barriers between countries or “defensive measures which have been built 20 years ago, 30 years ago for the services which are no more relevant in many cases,” Maciej added.
Does Europe have the talent needed for success?
Despite some people suggesting Europe needs to do more to attract new talent and revitalise the bloc’s ecosystem, Maciej is very confident in the continent’s homegrown talent.
“In Europe, we have Elon Musks and we have Mark Zuckerbergs. We just don’t have the SpaceX’s and the Facebook’s yet.
“But on the talent side, on the talent pool, we definitely have what is needed and much more than our competitors. We still have very good education, we have strong universities. We also have the equity — Europe is still a rich continent.”
Maciej believes it is just a matter of harnessing the potential properly through the banking union, the investments and savings union and more.
“At the talent level we are the richest place in the world.”
What can the rest of Europe learn from Poland’s booming economy?
Before taking on his new role, Maciej was immersed in the world of business in Poland.
Over the past ten years, Poland’s economy has been one of Europe’s greatest success stories, more than doubling its GDP.
So what can the rest of Europe learn from it?
“We are young, and I’m not afraid of this, that we are young Europe.”
“I would love the rest of Europe to also be younger, to say yes we can, because really the resources are there. We believe in the capability, we have been believing in the capabilities of change, so [this leads to] a much quicker adaptation to the realities.”
Poland has some grounds for optimism. Its economy grew by around 3% in 2024, driven by domestic consumption and a post-pandemic investment boom. Deregulation has been central to that story.
“The Polish government ran last year a kind of deregulation initiative with one of the Polish major businessmen and prime minister meeting publicly with the media every month and counting the changes of the simplification of Polish law.”
“160 bills have been passed within three, four months from the beginning of this initiative.
“I go back to the European situation, we have all the necessary resources, the capital one, the human ones, it’s just a question of how we put them together,” Maciej concluded.
The Big Questionis a series from Euronews Business where we sit down with industry leaders and experts to discuss some of the most important topics on today’s agenda.
Watch the video above to see the full discussion with BusinessEurope.