Europe Faces ‘Mass Unemployment’ Without Radical Reform, Warns ABB Boss

The chief executive of engineering giant ABB, Morten Wierod, has issued a blunt wake-up call to European lawmakers: deregulate and reform immediately, or brace for a mass unemployment crisis.

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Wierod warns that a toxic mix of high energy costs and staggering regulatory red tape is rapidly killing Europe’s ability to compete on the global stage.

The Triple Threat to European Industry

• The Energy Price Trap: Following recent geopolitical shocks, European gas prices remain stubbornly high. While the continent has enough supply to get through 2026 and 2027, the cost is crippling compared to the US, which relies on cheap, domestic shale gas.
• The Brussels Stagnation: Wierod slammed the “lack of urgency” in the EU. Nearly two years after former Italian PM Mario Draghi published a massive blueprint to save European competitiveness, lawmakers have implemented a meager 10% of his 383 proposals.
• Protectionist Backfire: Recent “Made in Europe” initiatives aimed at cutting dependence on foreign tech are backfiring. Instead of protecting local businesses, these rules are simply driving up corporate costs.

What’s at stake? This isn’t just corporate hyperbole. ABB itself employs 52,400 people across Europe. Furthermore, EU Commissioner for Jobs Roxana Mînzatu recently warned that sustained high energy prices alone could wipe out 1.3 million European jobs.

The Solution: Cut Red Tape, Don’t Just Edit It

Europe has proven it can move fast when backed into a corner—like when it slashed reliance on Russian gas from 35% to 10% in a single year. To survive this next hurdle, ABB and other industrial leaders argue the EU must pivot to a two-pronged strategy:

1. Kill the Laws, Don’t Just Simplify Them: Stop trying to streamline bad regulation. Lawmakers need to outright delete redundant rules to create a frictionless single market.
2. Aggressive Electrification: Fast-track grid updates and industrial electrification to insulate European factories from volatile global fossil fuel markets.