On Tuesday 5 November, the European Commission published the recommendations of the Strategic Forum for Important Projects of Common European Interest to develop connected and autonomous cars, hydrogen technologies, smart health, the Internet of Things, low-emission industry and cyber security.
The Forum therefore proposes a multitude of cross-cutting recommendations, starting with the pooling of private and public financial resources to achieve a sufficient critical financial mass based on various European programmes (InvestEU, Horizon Europe, Digital Europe or the Connecting Europe Facility) and the Structural and Investment Funds. Not surprisingly, the report proposes, for the internal component, reducing the remaining obstacles in the single market by making public procurement rules more coherent and, for the external component, strengthening the EU’s trade defence arsenal.
Emphasis is also placed on important projects of common European interest (IPCEI). For experts, the facts are clear: markets alone are not strong enough to support particularly complex cross-border projects with significant financial risk. For them, the civil service must intervene. The key is to ensure that competition rules are not distorted, the authors of the report insist.
These recommendations complement the work of the High Level Industrial Roundtable to accompany economic transition by 2030 and build on the momentum launched by the Battery Alliance (see EUROPE 12315/5) and the important project of common European interest (IPCEI) in microelectronics.
It should be noted that the Forum also considers the electric battery, high-performance computing and microelectronics sectors to be strategic but has not made any recommendations concerning them.
To consult the full report (105 pages): http://bit.ly/2NHMCzt (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)