1 Introduction

Ladies and gentlemen,

Tonight, we are gathered in the Basilica of the Bode-Museum, a hall designed to evoke a Florentine Renaissance church. This unique setting does invite us to reflect: on what we inherit, what we preserve and what we choose to renew. 

The Bode-Museum is part of Museum Island, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Notably, it houses one of the world’s most important collections of coins and medals. Coins are small witnesses to wide connections. They tell us how people traded across borders, how political orders changed, and how trust was created – or lost. 

Where better to tell these stories than in Berlin? A city that has known historical upheavals, decades of division, a peaceful revolution and reunification. And a city that has renewed itself time and again. Today, Berlin is the capital of a reunited Germany whose future is inseparable from that of Europe. So this is the right place to ask: How much unity does Europe need to shape its future in freedom, sovereignty and prosperity?

2 Europe – a museum?

From time to time, I hear that Europe is turning into a sort of museum. A place where you can admire the achievements of the past and enjoy your leisure time. The narrative is that Europe merely preserves and manages its prosperity, while innovation and economic momentum happen elsewhere. That is not how I see Europe – today or in the future. Who will be proved right depends on how Europe meets the current challenges.

The world around us is undergoing profound change. The geopolitical climate has become harsher and less predictable. Global competition has intensified. And artificial intelligence is driving technological shifts. In this new world, we need to consider competitiveness and sovereignty together. AI could become a litmus test here. With its transformative power, AI has far-reaching consequences for Europe – not least for its economy and security. And with its influence on productivity, labour markets and inflation, it warrants our attention as central bankers. 

At the same time, Europe is heavily reliant on non-European providers for developing and using AI. Think of advanced chips, computing power and cloud infrastructure. And look at the technological frontier: the most capable models currently come from the United States, with China firmly in second place.[1] What could it mean for us if AI is developed and controlled largely elsewhere? Based on this assumption, bleak scenarios for Europe’s future have been devised.[2] 

3 Unlocking Europe’s potential 

But my assumption about Europe’s future is different: Europe will be a major technological player. Clearly, that won’t happen by itself. We must take decisive action now.

Our starting point is better than many think. We have world-class universities, producing excellent research and training a significant share of global AI talent.[3] Our industry holds a treasure trove of data that could prove invaluable for AI development. And we also have vast private savings that could finance AI innovation and infrastructure. This is a promising foundation, not just for the use of AI, but also for its development. 

To compete with the United States and China, European companies should not enter the race from 27 separate markets for capital, services and labour. In that race, size matters. Europe is large on paper. It must become large in practice. If we unlock our single market’s full potential, Europe can catch up with the world’s technological leaders. I’m firmly convinced of that. 

Perhaps we can learn something from Wilhelm von Bode, after whom this museum is named. From the 1880s onwards, he was director of several museums in Berlin. Back then, Berlin was trying to catch up with the leading global museum centres. Bode’s answer was to bring together public institutions, private initiative, international expertise and capital. He built networks of collectors, dealers and scholars across Europe – and helped Berlin’s collections rise to international prominence. Europe’s challenge today is, of course, very different. But there is a lesson here: Together, we can achieve more.

What is needed for Europe to become a leading centre for AI? Models attract most of the attention. But behind them lie semiconductors, computing infrastructure, energy, capital and skilled people. Therefore, we need a comprehensive approach. Three things are essential. 

First, Europe needs more venture capital. Promising start-ups must be able to grow into global providers without having to seek funding elsewhere. This is why the Savings and Investments Union matters so much. Europe has the savings. We need better channels to turn them into productive investment.

Second, we need enough computing capacity. That requires investment in data centres, energy grids and a secure supply of electricity at competitive prices. Here, Europe can draw on its own history. European integration began with coal and steel. Now, the key resources are different. Yet the insight remains valid: Europe benefits from an energy union. For example, more cross-border interconnections would allow clean and lower-cost electricity to flow freely. That would support both affordability and resilience. 

Third, innovative firms need genuinely integrated markets to scale rapidly. They must be able to offer digital products and services across Europe. The same applies to recruiting talent. If we lower remaining barriers in services, digital markets and labour mobility, we make scale easier to achieve. Completing the single market therefore also strengthens Europe’s technology policy. 

The three tasks point in the same direction: deeper integration where scale is decisive. How do we get there? European institutions and Member States must pull together. Of course, national interests matter. But where scale is decisive, national action is likely to fall short. In such cases, national interests are best served through European action. That means judging initiatives through a European lens.

The Eurosystem shows that joint action can work. We central bankers can bring this experience into our national debates about European integration. We can explain what is at stake, and what Europe stands to gain from acting together.

This is about more than Europe’s position in international technology rankings. It concerns our ability to make our own choices. It concerns the resources needed to sustain our social model and our security. And it concerns whether future generations in Europe can live in freedom, self-determination and prosperity. As the Eurosystem, we are doing our bit for a sovereign Europe, for example through the digital euro.

4 Conclusion

Ladies and gentlemen, 

Our prosperity is no relic of past success that we can only preserve and administer. It is our launch pad for the future. The comparison with a static museum misses the mark twice. It misjudges Europe. And it misjudges modern museums. The Bode-Museum has renewed itself time and again over more than a century. 

Europe, too, can renew itself. Our heritage is valuable because it gives us confidence, experience and a foundation on which to build. Let us use that foundation. Let us turn the scale of Europe into power to act. And let us ensure that the innovations shaping tomorrow also bear a European imprint.

Footnotes:

1.  According to a comparison of leading model providers, the six highest-scoring companies are all American or Chinese, see Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (2026), Artificial Intelligence Index Report 2026.
2.  See Juijn, D., S. van Baarsen, J. Dada, M. Negele, L. Stelling, P. Fox, A. Petropoulos and M. Bakker (2026), Europe 2031: What getting AI wrong means for us, 11 June.
3.  European Commission (2026), Enhancing competitiveness, sovereignty and security of the European Union in frontier AI: Key insights from the first meeting of the European Expert Forum on Frontier AI.