The European Commission unveiled its Competitiveness Compass, a frame of reference for future policies made to relaunch European industry towards the technologies of the future in order to ensure that the European Union pushed through its limits, as highlighted by the annual report on the single market.
The Compass was one of the first initiatives announced by EC President Ursula von der Leyen when her second term started in November. Its roots are in former European Central Bank president Mario Draghi‘s report, which encouraged the European Union leadership to address Europe’s competitive issues.
“The Competitiveness Compass transforms the excellent recommendations of the Draghi report into a roadmap. So now we have a plan. We have the political will. What matters is speed and unity,” said von der Leyen, presenting the project on Thursday.
According to the presentation, the Commission plans to divide the Compass into three main core areas of intervention: innovation, decarbonisation and security. All of these will intersect with five major themes: simplification, new strategies for the EU single market, funding for competitiveness, job promotion, and coordination between the EU and member states.
The need for intervention in these areas was highlighted by the release of the Annual Single Market and Competitiveness Report. The report found that the EU faces competitiveness issues, with companies failing to scale up and a limited digitalisation process. Plus, barriers in the single market hold back companies.
To overcome some of the issues, Compass plans to simplify the process with an Omnibus proposal that will kickstart a simplification in legislation that targets to slash 25% of the administrative burden for companies. Another initiative targets the modernisation of the single market further to harmonise the market between the various member states.
As for the three core areas will see the EU proposing AI Gigafactories and Applying AI initiatives for the development of the AI industry within the bloc, plus other roadmaps of investments for key technologies of the future, like biotech, space and robotics, while a strategy document will try and identify what is dragging European companies. A key area of intervention is decarbonisation, and the Commission plans to work side by side with companies to ensure that innovation is not jeopardised while continuing with its green energy targets.
The Compass is the first real push of the new Commission, and von der Leyen is setting up an ambitious programme that will require a strong effort from the entire bloc. As Executive Vice-President for Prosperity and Industrial Strategy, Stéphane Séjourné said: “With the Compass, the Commission presents its economic doctrine for the next five years.”
