A new briefing explains why the forthcoming ‘ECF’ should focus on strategic cleantech with the highest decarbonisation and scale-up potential. The European Competitiveness Fund (ECF) could become the EU’s industrial policy steering instrument in the next long-term budget. With €207 billion on the table, it has the potential to strengthen Europe’s security, competitiveness and climate leadership at the same time. But in its current form, the Fund risks spreading resources too thinly across too many priorities. To deliver real impact, it must focus on the clean technologies that can build industrial strength, cut emissions and reduce dependence on imported fossil fuels. Europe needs an industrial strategy that matches today’s geopolitical and economic reality. That means backing the sectors that can anchor domestic manufacturing, strengthen strategic autonomy and accelerate the clean transition. The forthcoming European Competitiveness Fund should focus on strategic cleantech with the highest decarbonisation and scale-up potential. That includes the battery value chain, electric vehicles, heavy-duty zero-emission vehicles, zero-emission aircraft and vessels, and clean fuels for aviation and shipping. Public money should not support fossil-based or environmentally harmful projects. To make that vision credible, the Clean Transition and Industrial Decarbonisation window should be increased to at least €50 billion, alongside national contributions. The Fund also needs a simple and effective toolbox, combining grants, loans, guarantees, equity and output-based support to de-risk investment and create lead markets for European clean technologies. Financial support must come with strong conditions. Mandatory, transparent eligibility rules — including Made-in-EU requirements and environmental and social safeguards — are essential to ensure public money strengthens European industry and supports EU objectives. Finally, governance will be decisive. An independent, science-based Strategic Stakeholder Board should help guide priorities and funding decisions, while work programmes should follow transparent, evidence-based methodologies. For T&E, this is the bigger political choice: whether Europe builds its competitiveness around the clean industries of the future, or continues to dilute public funding across too many objectives. The ECF should become the financial backbone of a genuine European industrial strategy. To find out more, download the briefing. Article from T&E.
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