- European Competitiveness Fund to pool 14 existing EU funding instruments
- MEPs raise the overall budget and the InvestEU guarantee ceiling
- New dedicated mechanisms to support R&D, housing, defence
On Tuesday, Industry Committee MEPs proposed to reshape the European Competitiveness Fund’s scope, governance and budget, with a focus on industrial and security dimensions.
MEPs on Industry, Research and Energy Committee adopted their position (61 votes to 13 and with 12 abstentions) on the European Competitiveness Fund (ECF), which aims to bolster European competitiveness in strategic sectors for the 2028-2034 period.
Renamed and restructured policy windows
The ECF consolidates 14 existing EU funding instruments, into four policy windows. In their amendments, committee MEPs want to rename three of them, putting an emphasis on the industrial and economic security dimension of competitiveness. They advocate for a dedicated budget envelope and governance structure for critical raw materials, and for a section dedicated to energy infrastructure.
They propose to increase the overall ECF budget to a €264.35 billion in current prices (from €234.3 in the Commission proposal), with detailed binding minimum allocations per policy window and sub-sections. MEPs suggest introducing a new €10.11 billion flexibility reserve, to allow the Fund respond to unforeseen challenges.
Defence research and innovation
Industry Committee MEPs advocate a specific programme for defence research, development and innovation. They suggest to focus it into three distinct instruments: an agile, upstream defence research programme, a blended-finance instrument for defence start-ups and scale-ups developing disruptive technologies, and an instrument to fund collaborative applied research tied to capability priorities.
MEPs propose a clear definition of the notion of “competitiveness”, centered around the ability of European companies to compete successfully in global markets. They also add definitions of the key concepts of strategic dependencies and resilience.
The committee also propose to replace the Commission’s single “Strategic Stakeholders Board” with several new, independent governance bodies. The text also advocates to create “Horizon Europe Pathway actions”, a dedicated mechanism to translate Horizon Europe research results into market deployment.
Housing, energy communities and social investment
They propose a new article, dealing with the ECF InvestEU Instrument, providing support for sustainable construction and clean tech manufacturing for housing, energy-efficient building renovation, renewable and citizen energy communities, and social investments. Maximum guarantee of this instrument should stand at €150 billion (The Commission proposed to make it €70 billion).