The creation of a grand fund of industrial policy and competitiveness promotes Commissionmerging up to 14 existing budget lines in its next multi -year budgetary framework (MSc) EUin accordance with a draft document cited by Euractiv.
The EU (European Competitiveness Fund (ECF)) plan for the long-awaited European Competitiveness Fund is part of the EU’s new seven-year fiscal package (2028-2034) and is the “spearhead” of the Commission to reform productivity in Europe.
The aim is to create a single funding tank, which will enhance the EU’s competitiveness over the US and China, utilizing existing funds. Although the draft regulation does not include specific numbers, it states that the new fund will consolidate activities currently covered by 14 separate budget lines, in the context of today’s seven -year plan of 1.2 trillion. euro.
Among them are:
- The Innovation Fund Fund
- The Digital Europe (Digital Europe Program) program
- The 2 billion euro part of Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) for digital projects
- The European Defense Fund (European Defense Fund)
- The ASAP mechanism to boost ammo
- Edirpa and Edip Initiatives for Common Defense Supplies and Industrial Defense Base
- The EU4HEALTH program
- The European Space Program, including the IRIS² satellite program
- Investeu investment tool
- This ambitious financial scheme aims, according to the draft, to reduce Europe’s investment gap, mobilizing private funds through public funding.
However, some of the largest European programs are either completely excluded or integrated only in part. For example, the Horizon Europe (€ 93 billion budget) is not included for the most part, while a significant part of the Innovation Fund (40 billion euros) as well as the largest part of Connecting Europe Facility (€ 20 billion) for transport and energy projects are also outside the ECF.