The draft declaration for the informal meeting of European leaders to be held in Budapest on Friday 8 November, obtained by Agence Europe, sets out the main elements of a “New European Competitiveness Deal”, which will build on the foundations laid by the Versailles Declaration of March 2022 (see EUROPE 12909/1) and the Granada Declaration of October 2023 (see EUROPE 13266/1), and will specifically reaffirm the desire to complete the green and digital transitions in the European Union.
The draft declaration, which refers to the Strategic Agenda for the Union for 2024-2029 (see EUROPE 13441/1), underlines the urgency of closing the innovation and productivity gap, and the need to strengthen economic resilience and reap the benefits of the Single Market.
Single Market. According to the draft declaration, EU leaders will call on the European Commission to present, possibly by June 2025, a new and comprehensive horizontal strategy on the deepening of the Single Market, based on the recommendations of the ‘Letta’ report on the internal market (see EUROPE 13393/3) and the ‘Draghi’ report on European competitiveness (see EUROPE 13478/1).
Savings and Investments Union. The EU27 will call on the EU institutions to pursue the “ambitious programme” to achieve a “European Savings and Investments Union”, with results expected by 2026 on both the Banking Union and Capital Markets Union.
In addition, the leaders are considering the creation of an EU sovereign wealth fund for equity investments, which could be developed within the European Investment Bank (EIB) Group, together with the national economic development banks, on a voluntary basis.
Industry. With regard to industry, the leaders intend to ask the European Commission to present, as a matter of priority, a comprehensive industrial strategy for competitive industries and quality jobs.
They also want to strengthen the European defence technological and industrial base, in particular by asking the EIB to evaluate and adapt its lending policy to the European defence industry.
Research and innovation. The European leaders will then want to focus on cutting-edge research, research transfer, and its economic valorisation within the EU, and are committed to meeting the target of 4% of GDP devoted to research and innovation, possibly by 2030 (see EUROPE 13509/6).
Energy. The draft declaration also states that European leaders could agree on the year 2027 to complete a genuine Energy Union, “key to ensuring our competitiveness and resilience and the security of abundant, affordable and clean energy across the EU”.
Digital. On the digital front, the draft declaration calls on the European Commission to present a European technology strategy by mid-2025 to strengthen the EU’s technological capacities and to accelerate digitalisation in all sectors.
Trade. Next, the European leaders will renew their call for an “ambitious, robust, open and sustainable” EU trade policy, that allows fair free trade agreements with third countries. They also called for the economic security strategy to be strengthened with the goal of “protecting our economy and supply chains, while promoting an open economy”.
New own resources. Finally, the leaders believe that the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) should be used as a tool to achieve competitiveness objectives. They also undertake to work on the introduction of new own resources to the EU budget, and to continue work on those that have been already proposed.
To see the draft declaration: https://aeur.eu/f/e0q (Original version in French by Pauline Denys)