Designing the European Competitiveness Fund for lasting impact
From cost-cutting to clean leadership
The EU’s European Competitiveness Fund (ECF), with a combined allocation of €409 billion, will shape the EU’s industrial policy throughout the 2028–2034 budget period. It consolidates 14 existing programmes into a single structure, covering research and innovation, clean transition, digital leadership, and resilience and security. The stakes are high. But is the current design fit for purpose?
The ECF risks embedding a flawed vision of competitiveness: one focused on near-term cost reduction rather than on building leadership in the sectors and technologies around which future global markets will be organised. As the global cleantech market continues to grow rapidly, a fund that sidelines the clean transition will leave European industry exposed precisely when it can least afford to be.
This paper identifies five concrete levers spanning the strategic, technical and financial levels of the regulation: a long-term definition of competitiveness; strategic governance tied to a credible industrial strategy; robust horizontal and project-level conditionalities; and stronger funding for the clean transition window. Together, they offer a roadmap for turning the ECF from a reactive spending instrument into a genuine driver of European industrial renewal.
