Are we so busy managing today’s crises that we are forgetting to build tomorrow?

Recent student protests in France, echoed in other European countries, have left me with an uncomfortable question.

Overcrowded classrooms. Crumbling school buildings. Missing teachers. Young people increasingly worried about their future.

Their concerns deserve to be heard. Violence is never the answer, but neither is ignoring the frustration behind it.

Of course, these immediate problems must be addressed.

But is repairing yesterday‘s infrastructure enough to give the next generation confidence in tomorrow?

What about the world these young people will enter in 10, 20 or 30 years?

Artificial intelligence will transform jobs and entire industries.

Climate change will require technologies, investments and solutions we have barely begun to develop.

Energy, healthcare, mobility and industrial competitiveness will all be reinvented.

And yet, our public debate seems increasingly dominated by the next crisis, the next budget, the next election.

We need to invest in both the present and the future.

Better schools today. But also stronger universities, ambitious public and private research, DeepTech, innovative startups and the industrial capacity to turn discoveries into businesses and jobs.

After more than three decades in European industry, and now working with young entrepreneurs, I remain convinced that Europe has extraordinary talent.

What we sometimes lack is the long-term ambition to give that talent a future.

Young people don’t just need better classrooms. They need reasons to believe in what comes after them.

And perhaps that is the real question we should be asking our political and business leaders:

Are we simply trying to make today‘s world work — or are we building a better one for the next generation?

#EuropeanTech #Innovation #DeepTech #Education #FutureGenerations