Rome – Italy ranks fourth in terms of competitiveness among the twelve most populous economies in the EU, level with Germany and behind Sweden, Spain, and France. This is the finding of the first “National Competitiveness Report”, presented yesterday, 4 November, in Rome at Palazzo Wedekind, by the Institute for Competitiveness (I-Com). The study stems from the work of the Parliamentary Intergroup on Competitiveness, a cross-party forum established in 2025, of which I-Com is a technical and scientific partner.
The analysis compares the twelve countries across eight strategic sectors: telecommunications and digital infrastructure, AI, energy, space, defence, clean technologies for electrification, the automotive sector and life sciences. Each sector is assessed using eight indicators – six common and two sector-specific – which feed into a new I-Com Competitiveness Index.
Italy achieves its best results in telecommunications, tied for second place with the Netherlands and behind only Poland, and in the space and automotive sectors, both of which rank third. Next come life sciences (fifth) and AI (sixth), while energy and clean technologies are seventh. Defence brings up the rear in eighth place.
The system is underpinned by human capital – which places the country in the upper half of the rankings across all sectors – and labour-cost-adjusted productivity, a figure which, however, also reflects low wages. Holding it back are bureaucratic complexity – which places Italy eighth overall – the weakness of research and development, and international dependencies, with telecommunications imports more than three and a half times higher than exports.
The president of I-Com, Stefano da Empoli, emphasises that Italy has “a solid competitive foundation” and can hold its own against its European partners. The gap between Italy and the leading countries, he adds, is part of a negative trend across the whole of Europe already highlighted by the Draghi Report, and competitiveness must therefore be addressed at both European and national levels. The future European Competitiveness Fund, due to be launched in 2028, will reward those countries most open to innovation.
Four priorities have been identified: simplifying authorisation procedures, strengthening research and venture capital, ensuring long-term stability in public planning, and focusing on the stages with the greatest added value within strategic supply chains.
English version by the Translation Service of Withub
