Europe is currently confronted with a number of crises and risks, both financial and humanitarian. The industrial associations of Italy and Germany – Confindustria and the BDI – took the opportunity at the fifth annual Italian-German Business Forum in Bolzano in October 2015 to identify the steps needed to strengthen prosperity and growth in Europe in the future. These include deepening the European internal market and strengthening the European economic and monetary union. The EU should also create a more integrated and better functioning energy market as well as a digital internal market. This is the only way to ensure new technologies and strategies for the fourth industrial revolution are translated into success. Investment in forward-looking technologies and broadband infrastructure will be of decisive importance in this regard.