Study: Transforming France’s industrial competitiveness is a €150 billion opportunity
Despite its strong base, France’s industrial and manufacturing sector is coming under increasing pressure. A new study from Eurogroup Consulting underscores the national importance of transforming the country’s industrial sector and puts forward a strategic framework that could unlock up to €150 billion in new value while safeguarding sovereignty.
The global industrial order has consistently struggled in recent years with significant instability as geopolitical turmoil, energy issues, and climate change continue to reshape value chains. These problems have hit Europe especially hard since the war in Ukraine, various energy crises, and now the conflict in the Middle East. The lesson is clear: Industry is no longer just a driver of growth; it has become a vital tool for power and resilience.
To address these challenges, the study from Eurogroup Consulting proposes an industrial plan for 2040 that would allow France to gain greater sovereign by building a more integrated economy. This plan focuses on a limited number of breakthrough technologies where France can lead, provided it acts with speed and agility.
The 2040 plan’s estimated €150 billion in additional value builds on the current €60 billion natural growth path of French industry while delivering a significant additional boost to overall economic growth. The researchers estimate the ambition could create nearly a million jobs in high-value, skilled and non-offshorable activities.
Growing challenges in industry
While industry in France – and Europe more broadly – has managed to build world-class engineering and innovation capabilities, it also faces deep vulnerabilities, including a lack of scale and a heavy reliance on foreign suppliers.
Currently, more than 60% of industrial components used in France are imported, with a high dependence on Asia for semiconductors, advanced materials, and pharmaceutical active ingredients. Experts warn that the window to reclaim leadership is narrowing as competitors like China and the United States deploy massive industrial plans that quickly will leave Europe far behind.
“France and Europe enter this decade with undeniable strengths, but also with deep structural vulnerabilities: Critical dependencies, insufficient scale, fragmented industrial ecosystems and a growing gap with competitors that have chosen speed and scale,” said Gilles Bonnenfant, chairman of Eurogroup Consulting.
“The era in which efficiency could compensate for strategic exposure is over. History rarely offers second chances. France and Europe still have one – but only if they act decisively.”
Breaking tech dependencies
Any effective strategy for France needs to include developing sovereign generative AI, quantum computing, and advanced nuclear fusion – certainly no small task considering EU nations have been trailing behind in these highly technical areas, mainly choosing to rely on US and Chinese tech instead of building local expertise and manufacturing capabilities.
Other priority areas highlighted by Eurogroup Consulting include semiconductor components, battery cells, medical devices, active pharmaceutical ingredients, industrial automation equipment, hydrogen systems, advanced robotics, and next-generation energy technologies.
Beyond these areas, value creation will increasingly come from markets of the future: industrial artificial intelligence, digital twins, additive manufacturing, advanced robotics, cybersecurity, and new digital infrastructures. “Mastery of these technologies is essential not only to reindustrialize but to position France and Europe at the forefront of global industrial competition by 2040,” noted Bonnenfant.
The study emphasizes the need to anticipate future breakthroughs and avoid new dependencies. By concentrating talent and investment on these areas, the plan aims to transform industry into a central engine of innovation.
The proposed 2040 plan could help redirect the French economy in a positive direction. Newly unlocked growth would come from a combination of disruptive technologies, increased exports, and the expansion of industrial services.
The path to leadership
In order to succeed, going forward France and Europe must move beyond fragmented efforts toward a far more unified industrial project that can eventually steer things in the right direction. The study lays out these five strategic pillars:
Integrated sovereignty
The first priority is to secure critical supply chains and reinvest in infrastructure to restore technological control. By building a coherent and interconnected European industrial base, the continent can ensure its strategic autonomy when facing other major global blocs.
Agile and partnership-based governance
Governance must shift from a simple administrative logic to a mission-driven approach that unifies the state, industrial sectors, and local territories. Aligning these national policies will create a more responsive and coordinated European leadership.
Mobilization of human and financial resources
France must train, attract, and finance talent to match the speed of global industrial transitions. On a continental level, pooling resources is necessary to invest in disruptive technologies and reach a truly competitive industrial scale.
Rehabilitation of the industrial narrative
There is a vital need to restore the pride of production in the collective imagination. Rebuilding a European narrative of industrial power will help frame industry as a source of prosperity, sustainability, and shared national pride.
A unified competitiveness pact
The final lever involves creating a Franco-European pact to align fiscal, social, and industrial frameworks. By converging rules and incentives, the region can build an attractive environment that encourages productive investment and strengthens the internal market.
“In the global industrial race, hesitation is no longer neutral – it is a decision in itself,” said Bonnenfant. “Industrial dependence is no longer a theoretical risk; it is already constraining growth, security and freedom of choice. Rebuilding productive power is not nostalgia – it is the price of sovereignty in the twenty-first century. The window is narrowing. The responsibility is collective. But leadership, as always, must come first.”
