In a policy paper published on Monday 7 October, Andreas Eisl, a researcher at the Jacques Delors Institute, argues in favour of a European industrial policy fund. This would be an integral part of the European Competitiveness Fund that the president of the European Commission has called for. In addition to this new funding instrument, Andreas Eisl suggests new governance for industrial policy at European level.
The author of the document discusses different ways of financing the industrial policy fund, which he considers necessary. Like Mario Draghi, the author of the document believes that common debt is a possible solution to finance the fund. He also suggests using new own resources to feed this fund, as well as redirecting unused funds from the recovery plan. Expanding the EU budget is another option mentioned, but one that the author believes would be complicated by national constraints.
To manage this new financing tool, new European governance is needed, according to the Jacques Delors Institute.
Along the same lines as Enrico Letta and Mario Draghi, Andreas Eisl discusses the relevance of important projects of common European interest (IPCEI). He suggests revising the EU’s communication on IPCEI in order to put in place “coherent governance models adapted to specific public policy objectives”.
Furthermore, the author considers that IPCEI should not only target ‘state-of-the-art’ technologies, but also ‘mature’ industrial projects, which have gone beyond the deployment stage.
See the document: https://aeur.eu/f/dr4 (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)