EC Unveils Competitiveness Compass

The European Commission presented the Competitiveness Compass, the first major initiative of this mandate providing a strategic framework to steer the EC's work. The Compass sets a path for Europe to become the place where future technologies, services, and clean products are invented, manufactured, and put on the market while being the first continent to become climate-neutral.

Over the last two decades, Europe has not kept pace with other major economies due to a persistent gap in productivity growth. The EC said that the EU now has what it needs to reverse this trend with its talented and educated workforce, capital, savings, Single Market, and unique social infrastructure, provided it acts urgently to tackle longstanding barriers and structural weaknesses that hold it back.

“Europe has everything it needs to succeed in the race to the top. But, at the same time, we must fix our weaknesses to regain competitiveness. The Competitiveness Compass transforms the excellent recommendations of the Draghi report into a roadmap. So now we have a plan. We have the political will. What matters is speed and unity. The world is not waiting for us. All Member States agree on this. So, let's turn this consensus into action,” said President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen

The Draghi Report identified three transformational imperatives to boost competitiveness: innovation, decarbonization, and security. The Compass should set out an approach and a selection of flagship measures to translate each of these imperatives into reality by closing the innovation gap, creating a joint roadmap for decarbonization and competitiveness, reducing excessive dependencies, and increasing security. The three pillars are complemented by five horizontal enablers, essential to underpin competitiveness across all sectors: simplification, lowering barriers to the Single Market, financing competitiveness, promoting skills and quality jobs, and better coordination of policies at the EU and national level.