The Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce hosted the second edition of its "It's the Economy, Stupid" forum, bringing together voices from across sectors to examine the state of the European economy and the reforms needed to strengthen it. Among the panellists was Italo di Lorenzo, Amazon's Luxembourg Public Policy Lead, who shared insights drawn from the company's day-to-day operations across the EU. He was joined by Anne-Sophie Alsif, Chief Economist at BDO France, Philippe Glaesener, Senior Vice President of Space and Defence at SES, and Françoise Thoma, CEO of Spuerkeess, with the discussion moderated by Matthieu Tresson of the Chamber's Economic Affairs division.
Di Lorenzo opened by reflecting on the gap between Europe's stated ambitions and the regulatory reality that businesses face on the ground. Drawing on Amazon's presence in 21 EU Member States, he outlined a straightforward set of priorities for the continent: simplify, speed, and scale. "We have never found a customer who wanted to receive something more slowly," he noted. "People want good products, they want them affordable, and they want them now."
The scale of Amazon's engagement with the European economy provided a useful lens for the discussion. The company has invested more than €280 billion in the EU since 2010 and continues to grow its footprint, with over 350 logistics centres, more than ten R&D centres, and 150,000 direct employees. Over 100,000 EU based SME's and entrepreneurs sell on Amazon, achieving a record €40 billion in sales last year — with 70% of them exporting to other EU countries. These figures illustrate what becomes possible when the Single Market functions well.
The Single Market: Europe's greatest and most untapped asset
A recurring theme throughout the discussion was the Single Market and the potential it carries to reach its full promise. Di Lorenzo described it as Europe's most powerful competitiveness tool, one that requires no new spending, only the political will to follow through. He referenced the Draghi Report, which identifies an annual EU investment gap of €750 to €800 billion, and noted that closing the remaining Single Market gaps alone could unlock up to €335 billion in potential GDP gains each year. The Letta Report, meanwhile, calls for a fifth freedom — the free movement of knowledge and innovation — to complement the four freedoms already enshrined in EU law.
Di Lorenzo suggested that concrete steps are already within reach: accelerating the simplification omnibuses, creating a single EU-wide digital platform for Extended Producer Responsibility, expanding digital labelling through the Digital Product Passport, and finalising the VAT in the Digital Age package. These are not abstract policy proposals, he argued, but practical measures that would make an immediate difference for the thousands of small businesses trying to sell across borders. When the regulatory environment is predictable and consistent, investment follows — and that, he suggested, is the prize Europe should be focused on.
The discussion also touched on the question of sovereignty and how non-European companies investing in Europe should be viewed. Di Lorenzo suggested that the focus should be less on the origin of investment and more on whether Europe has built an environment that attracts and retains it. He pointed to the AWS European Sovereign Cloud, launched in Germany with a €7.8 billion investment, as an example of how openness and European data sovereignty can go hand in hand.
Across the panel, there was broad agreement that Europe does not lack talent or ambition. What it needs, as di Lorenzo put it, is delivery — completing the Single Market, enforcing existing rules consistently, and ensuring that simplification efforts lead to genuinely fewer obligations for businesses, not new layers of complexity.
During the second half of the day, the audience heard from the Luxembourg Minister of Economy Lex Delles and the Minister for Finance, Gilles Roth on the topic of how to finance the Luxembourg social model sustainably and how social dialogue could support change. The forum concluded with a session on Europe, where Christophe Hansen, European Commissioner for Agriculture and Food, and Thierry Breton, former European Commissioner for the Internal Market discussed the European Union’s capacity to reform in a challenging climate.
