Business Europe calls for coherent EU strategy for competitiveness

Business Europe, the association of national business federations in Europe, has recently released its business priorities for the next EU cycle with the publication of "Reboot Europe: Europe’s economic success – everyone’s business". The association calls for a "reboot" of European policies in the next EU cycle "to address the structural weaknesses that are undermining our companies’ efforts to deliver for society". 

Business Europe welcomes the EU leaders' acknowledgement that Europe’s prosperity is under threat and their commitment to making competitiveness the top priority for the next five years, and calls for due reflection of this commitment in upcoming initiatives such as the Competitiveness Compass, the omnibus proposal to simplify EU legislation, and the Clean Industrial Deal. Amongst other issues, the paper calls for "ambitious research and innovation policies, which prioritise EU funding for industrial competitiveness, strengthen public-private partnerships and R&I ecosystems and facilitate international collaboration".

The association proposes concrete actions for the EU to take during the first 100 days and beyond, including amongst others cutting red tape, reducing energy costs, diversifying export and import markets, boosting the digital economy and fostering innovation. With regard to R&I, Business Europe calls on the EU to "clearly signal the importance of industrial and collaborative research and innovation projects, improve framework conditions to attract private investments and accelerate the use of regulatory sandboxes to speed up demonstration and testing of new technologies and innovations".

For more information:

Business Europe - press release

Europe's Economic Success, Everyone's Business: Reboot Europe