This Bruegel blueprint analyses, within the framework of the EFIGE (European Firms in a Global Economy) project, the export and foreign investment performance of European firms. It is based on new cross-country data from 15,000 individual firms never available before. The book looks at the specific elements that make some European companies more competitive than others in foreign markets, revealing that firm characteristics -mainly size- are the primary determinants of export performance, even more so than country characteristics. Therefore the authors suggest that firm growth and consolidation in all European countries would generate a considerable increase in the value of European exports and thus help lift European growth.