{"id":417455,"date":"2025-01-29T18:00:40","date_gmt":"2025-01-29T17:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2025\/01\/29\/bussola-competitivita-vdl-sejourne\/"},"modified":"2025-01-29T19:18:21","modified_gmt":"2025-01-29T18:18:21","slug":"von-der-leyen-presents-the-competitiveness-compass-simplification-is-the-new-eu-watchword","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2025\/01\/29\/von-der-leyen-presents-the-competitiveness-compass-simplification-is-the-new-eu-watchword\/","title":{"rendered":"Von der Leyen presents the Competitiveness Compass: simplification is the new EU watchword"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels –\u00a0It will be the EU’s “North Star<\/strong>” for the next five years, which appear to be somewhat different from the previous five years, those of the Green Deal<\/strong>.\u00a0 The Competitiveness Compass presented today by the European Commission contains a long wish list to make the Old Continent competitive again and not lose the global challenge against China and the United States.<\/p>\n

The New Economic Doctrine<\/h3>\n

During this morning’s (Jan. 29) press conference at the Berlaymont, at which she presented the Competitiveness Compass<\/strong><\/a>, EU executive chairwoman Ursula von der Leyen<\/strong> stressed that “Europe has what it takes to succeed in the race to the top” of the world economy but that “we need to correct our weaknesses to regain competitiveness<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n

She was echoed by Executive Vice-President for Prosperity and Industrial Strategy St\u00e9phane S\u00e9journ\u00e9<\/strong>, who says that the one published today is the “economic doctrine for the next five years<\/strong>,” a simple doctrine that “can be summed up in one keyword: competitiveness<\/strong>.” We are facing,” he says, “a change of mindset for Europe and Europeans,” by which Brussels aims to make the Union “more predictable while maintaining the course of our European model: decarbonised, social, and respectful of our values<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n

\n

It is time to restart Europe’s innovation engine.<\/p>\n

We have the Compass.<\/p>\n

We have the political will.<\/p>\n

Now, what matters is speed and unity.<\/p>\n

Because the world is not waiting for us \u2193 https:\/\/t.co\/4iollrSWxi<\/a><\/p>\n

– Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) January 29, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yes, because they both promised from the stage in front of reporters\u00a0that the Green Deal’s goals would remain in place<\/strong>. The reassurances are addressed primarily to those who have shown\u00a0distrust of the so-called “Omnibus”<\/strong>\u00a0measures, which are amendments (potentially even controversial ones) to existing EU legislation that will be put together in large packages, as happens\u00a0in Italy.<\/span><\/p>\n

The widespread fear is that they want to get their hands precisely on the complex “green” regulations<\/strong> laboriously passed during von der Leyen’s first term, against which businesses, companies, and a growing part of European politics are turning<\/strong>. The goals remain, and both von der Leyen and S\u00e9journ\u00e9 have repeated them, but a discussion will now open on the path to achieving them<\/strong> under the banner of two more magic words: flexibility and pragmatism<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The three basic pillars<\/h3>\n

To align with the former ECB number one’s recommendations, the Compass is structured around\u00a0three main “pillars”<\/strong>: closing the\u00a0innovation gap<\/strong>, moving\u00a0decarbonisation<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0competitiveness<\/strong>\u00a0forward at the same pace (possibly a quick pace), and, finally, reducing\u00a0foreign dependencies<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0increasing the Union’s security<\/strong>. Between now and the end of 2026, the Commission envisions some\u00a0twenty legislative proposals<\/strong>\u00a0to put the EU in a position to deal with the future (which, indeed, is the present) of global competition.<\/span><\/p>\n

It starts, in the field of innovation, with the AI gigafactories<\/i><\/strong> and Apply AI<\/i><\/strong> initiatives to drive the development and industrial adoption of artificial intelligence in the most strategic sectors<\/strong>, which will include action plans for advanced materials and quantum technologies, biotechnology, robotics, and space, which will be complemented by a strategy for start-ups and the development of a so-called 28th legal regime<\/strong> to simplify regulations affecting companies, which are currently fragmented among 27 national legislations.<\/p>\n

\n

\"St\u00e9phane<\/a>
European Commission Executive Vice President for Prosperity and Industrial Strategy St\u00e9phane S\u00e9journ\u00e9 presents the Strategic Compass, January 29, 2025 (photo: Bendo\/European Commission data)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/figure>\n

Concerning decarbonisation, the\u00a0<\/span>Clean Industrial Deal<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0will set out a competitiveness-based approach, while the\u00a0<\/span>Affordable Energy Action Plan<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0will\u00a0control energy costs.<\/span>\u00a0The Industrial Decarbonisation Accelerator Act<\/i><\/strong>\u00a0will extend and facilitate permits to sectors in transition, joining other action plans tailored to other energy-intensive sectors.<\/p>\n

The last pillar, reducing dependencies and increasing security, involves\u00a0“effective partnerships<\/strong>” focusing on trade agreements and clean investments<\/strong>\u00a0to ensure a reliable supply of raw materials, clean energy and technologies, and sustainable fuels. This should also include the introduction of a “European preference<\/strong>” with the revision of public procurement rules.<\/p>\n

The five transversal\u00a0imperatives<\/h3>\n

Now, to put these priorities into action, the Commission has identified five horizontal “enablers”<\/strong> to inform its legislative proposals, which can be summarised as the following imperatives: simplify<\/strong>, eliminate barriers<\/strong> congenital in the domestic market<\/strong>, finance competitiveness<\/strong>, promote the skills<\/strong> of the future, and make coordination<\/strong> between the EU and national levels more effective.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Mario<\/a>
Former Italian premier and former ECB president Mario Draghi presents his report on the future of European competitiveness to the European Commission in Brussels, Sept. 9, 2024 (photo: Nicolas Tucat\/Afp)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/figure>\n

As for the removal of barriers in the single market, which goes hand in hand with the issue of financing, the Commission has in the pipeline a horizontal strategy and, above all, the construction of a Savings and Investment Union<\/strong>\u2014which is nothing more than\u00a0the Capital Markets Union<\/strong> that has been talked about for years and has never seen the light of day\u2014to create new European financial products and transport on this side of the Atlantic the private savings and investments<\/strong> that to date flow instead to the U.S. What is clear, however, is that the EU executive wants to mobilise private capital alongside public investment<\/strong> because, it\u00a0argues, the latter alone will not be sufficient to finance EU priorities.<\/p>\n

In addition, von der Leyen intends to promote skills and quality jobs<\/strong> to stimulate the European economy and make it “future-proof.” Finally, better policy coordination between Brussels and the Twenty-seven<\/strong> is to be achieved. To this end, a competitiveness coordination instrument<\/strong> will be established, whose role will be to ensure national implementation of community policy objectives<\/strong>, identify projects of common interest<\/strong> involving several member states, and manage their funding.<\/p>\n

To support the implementation of the measures of this instrument, the Commission wants to introduce in the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF)<\/strong>\u2014which will cover the\u00a0seven years 2028\u20132034 and which, it seems, will see some big news<\/a> compared to previous programming periods\u2014a Competitiveness Fund<\/strong> that should replace several financial instruments<\/strong> that are already active in these areas which, Berlaymont technicians explain, are not only confusing but also difficult to activate. However, more than new resources, it will mainly be a matter of remodulating those that the chancelleries already pay<\/strong> to the common budget.\u00a0However, von der Leyen assures that negotiations for the next MFF\u00a0(which should begin in the second half of this year) should also consider\u00a0<\/span>introducing new resources<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The president of the European Commission and her deputy S\u00e9journ\u00e9 presented the EU’s new economic doctrine for the next five years, which revolves around “competitiveness,” “simplification,” and “pragmatism.” But, they assure, the Green Deal will remain intact<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7876,"featured_media":417449,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25705,25681],"tags":[26324,25747,25871,30302,26752,25882,26270,27356,26539],"class_list":["post-417455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-politics","tag-compass-competitiveness-en","tag-imprese-en","tag-investimenti-en","tag-mario-draghi-en-2","tag-simplification-en","tag-stephane-sejourne-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7876"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=417455"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417455\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":417487,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417455\/revisions\/417487"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/417449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=417455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=417455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=417455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

Simplification is, after all, the mantra resonating in Brussels\u2014especially among circles most intolerant of the Green Deal and EU bureaucratic hypertrophy\u2014already since the last part\u00a0of the previous European legislature (2019-2024). Thus, the Commission now aims to significantly reduce<\/strong> sustainability reporting requirements on companies, including those related to due diligence and taxonomy. Calculator in hand, experts from the EU executive estimate at around \u20ac37.5 billion<\/strong> the savings which should come<\/a> to companies on the Old Continent from the elimination of administrative burdens<\/strong> deemed excessive, which should find implementation in the very Omnibus measure<\/strong> (or various such measures) mentioned earlier.<\/p>\n