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Made in Europe
A label for trust
A 21st Europe blueprint
with Dada Projects
A new mark for the continent’s economy
Today’s Situation:
Trust in a Changing World
With an abundance of options and information, the burden is put on consumers to understand and evaluate where they get the most for their money when it comes to aligning along values of privacy, sustainability, health and well-being.
Europe’s current position reveals both strength and fragility. Its standards and institutions are admired globally, yet fragmentation, digital dependency, and external pressures challenge the very trust that underpins them. These four dynamics illustrate why a unified European label is no longer just symbolic — it’s strategic.
01: Global competition and fragile supply chains
In manufacturing, China now accounts for over 30% of global industrial output, while Europe’s share continues to decline — a shift that underscores the need to compete on quality rather than quantity. While global production scales elsewhere and digital platforms dominate from abroad, Europe still holds a distinct advantage in advanced manufacturing, green energy, and trusted digital infrastructure. To remain competitive, it must double down on excellence, innovation, and the high standards that define its industrial identity.
02: Digital dependency on foreign platforms
European businesses, governments, and citizens still rely heavily on foreign technology providers for cloud services, AI tools, and digital infrastructure. Seven of the world’s ten largest tech platforms are American, and none are European — leaving the continent dependent on non-European systems for data storage, social media, and cloud computing. This dependence limits Europe’s control over its data, economy, and democratic resilience. As more of life moves online, Made in Europe must extend from physical products to digital services — ensuring the same standards of trust, privacy, and accountability apply in the digital realm.
03: Sustainability and responsibility as global differentiators
Europe’s sustainability push is creating entire markets, not just compliance checklists. Investment is flowing into sectors built around efficiency and traceability: sustainable procurement platforms have raised over €700 million, and the grid software and energy management market is valued at €379 billion. What was once viewed as bureaucracy is now a growth engine. Europe’s mix of high standards, long-term policy, and industrial depth is turning sustainability into one of its strongest economic advantages.
By the numbers
€4.00 trillion exported in goods and services by the European Union in 2023, making it the largest exporter globally by value
22.4% of the EU’s GDP in 2023 was in international trade in goods and services
Over 50,000 companies worldwide are assessed under the European CRSD framework
EU digital product passports become mandatory for priority product groups, with full rollout by 2030
04: Fragmentation within Europe
Europe already sets many of the world’s rules for how things are made and traded. From CE marking to new Digital Product Passports, regulation has become one of Europe’s biggest exports. ESG reporting now affects 6,000 EU companies and 900 non-EU firms with significant European revenue, forcing global alignment with European standards. The testing and certification industry, projected to reach $407 billion by 2032, shows how compliance itself has become a market.
But inside Europe, the picture is less coherent. Dozens of overlapping frameworks — national ecolabels, sustainability certifications, product standards, and digital compliance systems — make it harder for businesses to know which rules apply, and harder for consumers to know which labels to trust. The Digital Product Passport is meant to simplify this landscape, but it’s only one piece of a fragmented puzzle. Without greater integration, Europe risks competing with itself — setting world-class standards globally while leaving its own market tangled in complexity.
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21st Europe:
Better by Design
Europe’s greatest strength has never been scale — it has been design. But design means more than form or aesthetics. It is the way Europe organizes life: how cities are planned, how economies are regulated, and how values are made visible through systems, not slogans. From the social welfare model to product safety standards, design in Europe has always been about building structures that balance freedom with fairness, innovation with inclusion.
Design is Europe’s method of resilience. Where others design for speed and disruption, Europe designs for continuity — making progress sustainable, equitable, and human. The continent’s design heritage, from Bauhaus to the New European Bauhaus, reveals how creativity and governance can work together to serve the public good. In this sense, design becomes Europe’s invisible infrastructure — the connective tissue that aligns markets, communities, and the environment. It shapes how we produce, distribute, and consume, ensuring that efficiency never comes at the expense of dignity. A European product or service is therefore not just well-made; it is well-designed for society.
Design is how Europe turns values into visible realities.
Johanna Fabrin
21st Europe
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Introducing Made in Europe
Europe has always been good at building things — cars, planes, infrastructure — but the value chain is shifting. Software, data, and regulation now define how products are made, not just what they are. Made in Europe connects those worlds: a framework that links Europe’s industrial base with its digital future.
Europe’s manufacturing still matters — 30 million people, 2.2 million companies, and €9.8 trillion in turnover, almost a quarter of total business value added. But as production becomes more connected and data-driven, advantage will come less from scale and more from standards: making things smarter, cleaner, and more accountable.
Made in Europe is about turning those standards into strategy — using regulation, trust, and transparency as economic strengths. In a world where the line between physical and digital keeps blurring, it offers a way for Europe to compete not on volume, but on credibility.
More than a label
The Made in Europe mark unites over 27 countries under a single banner while celebrating national strengths — Italian design, German engineering, Estonian e-services, Danish green tech. It gives European businesses a shared language of quality and ethics, built on the technologies and regulations that already make Europe unique.
It means more than where something is produced — it’s about how value is created. To earn the label, a product or service must add most of its value within the EU and meet four key standards that define European quality and purpose.
Made to Endure: Built to last, repair, and return. European design means durability — products created for generations, not seasons. Circularity isn’t a trend; it’s our default setting.
Nothing to Hide: Transparency is trust. Every Made in Europe product carries a visible, verifiable story — from origin to impact — so citizens can buy with confidence.
Safe by Design: Privacy, security, and reliability are engineered from the start. Technology made in Europe, whether hardware or software, protects people before it profits from them.
Fair Share: Made in Europe stands for value created — and value shared. Companies that thrive in Europe give back where they operate, proving that responsibility and success go hand in hand. From safe factories to fair wages, every product reflects Europe’s belief that dignity is part of good design.
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The Digital Passport:
Unlocking transparency
Trust as value creation
The label is not just regulatory — it is aspirational. It transforms compliance into a competitive edge, embedding European standards in ways consumers can see, understand, and trust. “Made in Europe” would signal a new standard for value creation - one rooted in Europe’s social contract and economic responsibility. It would represent companies that pay taxes where they operate, invest in fair employment and social protection, as well as committing to sustainable production. In essence, Made in Europe becomes a statement of purpose: Made for Europe, for people, for the planet.
Adaptability Across Time and Place
With tools like Digital Product Passports, supply chain tracing, and IoT-driven monitoring, the Made in Europe framework evolves as Europe does — from physical goods today to complex digital ecosystems tomorrow. As our understanding of what constitutes responsible production deepens, the label and its underlying certification should continuously reflect those higher minimum standards — raising the bar for transparency, ethics, and sustainability.
Crucially, Made in Europe is not designed to replace existing local or regional certification systems, but to connect them — creating a common European layer that strengthens coherence and mutual recognition across the continent. The goal is to develop a unifying certificate that works across all sectors — from B2C products and B2B services to public procurement — ensuring that every certified product or service remains traceable, accountable, and authentically European, no matter how technologies, expectations, or markets change.
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The Design System:
Unity through Diversity
Championing Europe’s strengths
From textiles to telehealth, from energy-efficient appliances to digital identity systems, the label reflects the same core European values across every domain: quality, safety, privacy, and sustainability. The design system behind Made in Europe is built to express both unity and diversity — a shared European identity that still honors the distinct heritage of its member states. A product can proudly display its national origin while carrying the collective mark of European excellence, signaling that it meets the same trusted standards across borders. Europe’s leadership in industrial IoT, smart monitoring, and AI compliance tools ensures that these values can be tracked and verified continuously, not just audited occasionally.
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From Industrial Strength to Sustainable Prosperity
Critical industries for the future of Europe
While the global conversation often celebrates software as the frontier of innovation, Europe’s next leap may come from reimagining its physical industries. The continent’s factories, farms, laboratories, and energy systems could become testbeds for a new kind of intelligence — where digital tools don’t replace human craft but amplify it. As the boundaries between hardware and code dissolve, Europe has the chance to fuse its industrial heritage with advanced technologies like AI, robotics, and connected infrastructure, creating products and systems that are not just efficient, but enduring, ethical, and distinctly European.
Around 80% of global GDP is tied to physical industries — from construction to logistics to healthcare — and Europe remains one of the few regions that still makes, builds, and produces at scale within strict ethical and environmental frameworks. By combining software innovation with this industrial foundation, Europe can define a new growth model: one where digitalization accelerates sustainability, transparency, and real-world impact.
These six industries form the backbone of a resilient European economy — one that balances innovation with responsibility, global competitiveness with local value creation.
Sustainable Manufacturing & Circular Design: Europe’s next industrial chapter is built on materials that endure, systems that reuse, and production that respects the planet.
Clean Energy & Climate Technologies: Europe leads the clean transition with renewable energy, hydrogen, and smart infrastructure — ensuring both independence and global competitiveness.
Advanced Technology & Digital Infrastructure: From cloud systems to semiconductors and cybersecurity, Europe is shaping a digital backbone rooted in transparency, privacy, and resilience.
Health, Life Sciences & Well-being: Scientific excellence and strict ethical standards drive breakthroughs that put people first — from biotech to digital health.
Creative & Cultural Industries: Europe’s creative sector — from design and architecture to gaming, film, and fashion — blends heritage with innovation, turning culture into craftsmanship.
Food, Agriculture & Wine Exports: Europe’s food culture is an export of both flavor and integrity — defined by quality, traceability, and regional authenticity. From regenerative agriculture to world-class winemaking, this sector connects tradition with innovation.
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The Made in Europe Setup:
Potential Scenarios
For Made in Europe to succeed at scale, it must rest on clear foundations: governance, delivery, and financing. The balance lies in making the label accessible to local industries while preserving the high standard that gives it meaning. It should be simple to adopt, but impossible to dilute.
Built on the Single Market’s conformity system (CE marking), the framework integrates the EU’s leading standards for sustainability, safety, and accountability — from Digital Product Passports and the EU Ecolabel to REACH, CSRD, and the EU Taxonomy. For digital services, it aligns with GDPR, the Data Act, and the AI and Cyber Resilience Acts, turning Europe’s values of trust, privacy, and security into tangible competitive advantages.
The goal is coherence across the continent with relevance at the local level — a unified European signature of quality, sustainability, and trust that still reflects the distinct strengths of each place of origin. Made in Europe should feel both collective and personal: one standard, many expressions.
Governance Model
The European Commission, in partnership with member states, industry associations, and civil society, coordinates the framework. Certification bodies ensure credibility, while citizens remain part of the oversight process. Example regulatory frameworks that already exist today that Made in Europe could use as a jumping off point include:
The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) requires companies to disclose verified data on their environmental and social impact, creating a transparent baseline across industries. It makes sustainability performance as visible and comparable as financial reporting.
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) gives individuals control of their personal data and holds companies accountable for how it’s used. Adopted globally as the benchmark for digital rights, it redefines privacy as a non-negotiable standard.
The Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) requires companies to identify and prevent human-rights and environmental abuses in their supply chains, making ethical production a legal obligation rather than a voluntary pledge.
Operating Model
The Made in Europe mark is designed to work across sectors — a shared trust system that companies can adopt once they meet clear, verifiable criteria. Each certification would be anchored in digital infrastructure, allowing compliance, sustainability, and origin data to be validated automatically rather than declared. A European-wide registry would act as the backbone of the system, linking every mark to real-time information on standards and performance, ensuring transparency and accountability.
Delivery would combine a central EU registry and trustmark — QR-linked to Digital Product Passports and CSRD disclosures — with national market-surveillance authorities responsible for local verification and enforcement. Together, they create a layered governance model: consistent across the continent, yet responsive to national realities.
To make the label visible and unifying, a shared design playbook would guide how Made in Europe appears on products and digital services — ensuring they feel recognisably European while reflecting local culture, language, and industry heritage. In this way, the mark becomes more than a certification; it becomes a symbol of collective identity — proof that Europe can deliver trust, beauty, and responsibility in every dimension of its economy.
Funding Model
The Made in Europe initiative would be financed through a blend of EU innovation funds, public–private partnerships, and contributions from certified companies. It is an investment not only in economic competitiveness, but in Europe’s global reputation — turning trust itself into a strategic asset. Each euro invested strengthens the continent’s capacity to produce responsibly, innovate locally, and lead globally.
Funding could braid together existing mechanisms such as Horizon Europe, InvestEU, the Innovation Fund, ERDF/CF/Just Transition instruments, RRF allocations, EIB lending, and targeted IPCEIs in critical sectors like batteries, hydrogen, and microelectronics. By aligning these streams under a shared European trust framework, Made in Europe turns fragmented funding into coordinated industrial momentum.
On the demand side, green and social public procurement would act as the pull mechanism — prioritising Made in Europe-certified products and services in public tenders. This ensures that every euro of public spending contributes to innovation, sustainability, and sovereignty — a reinvestment loop that builds both economic strength and social legitimacy.
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What's Next?
Made in Europe is more than an economic programme — it’s a cultural invitation to rebuild trust, pride, and purpose. It’s a call for a Europe that competes not by racing to the bottom, but by rising to its own ideals.
Join one of our upcoming classes to explore how Europe can strengthen its economic edge through responsible innovation and regional resilience — or reach out directly to learn how we’re helping direct capital toward this vision. We’ll share insights on the initiatives, funds, and start-ups already shaping the next chapter of Made in Europe.
Credits
21st Europe
The Made in Europe Blueprint, its vision, research, and orchestration, has been developed by 21st Europe. A new think tank, working with Europe's brightest minds to design blueprints that spark conversations and inspire optimism for the continent's next chapter.
Dada Projects
The blueprint has been designed in collaboration with Dada Projects, a female-led studio building an alternative future for 3D design. They use new technologies to produce unique animations that challenge convention and imagine speculative realities.
Credits
The Made in Europe Blueprint has been informed by expert insights in manufacturing, regulation and the European innovation landscape, ensuring it is a viable framework, not just a vision. Contributors include Henrik Lindholm (CEO, Etisk Handel), Hanna Hobohm Skoog (Program Director, Axfoundation), Amelie Silfverstolpe (Project Manager, Axfoundation), Jacob Graubaek Houlberg (CEO, Evertrace AI); and Staffan Olsson (Head of Public Affairs, GS1); with additional input drawn from research conducted by the European Commission, Deloitte, KPMG and the World Bank, among others.