10 Sep 2026
JRC assesses prospective economic impact of European Innovation Act
According to an ex-ante economic impact assessment of the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC), three reforms proposed by the European Innovation Act (EIA, published on 9 Sept. 2026) could generate up to € 452 billion in cumulative GDP, and half a million jobs across the EU over ten years.
The EIA aims to remove barriers for bringing innovative ideas to market. It puts forward three new targeted proposals to tackle specific issues in Europe's innovation ecosystem: a new way to value intellectual property and two measures to make public Research and Development (R&D) procurement a stronger tool for innovation. The JRC projections are based on scenarios that reflect different assumptions about how effectively the measures work in practice. Under the more conservative scenario, the EIA is projected to generate almost € 256 billion in additional EU GDP cumulatively over ten years, supporting 238,000 additional jobs at peak impact. Under the more optimistic scenario, cumulative GDP gains reach almost € 452 billion, with 507,000 jobs at peak. In both cases, GDP would be well above where it would have been without the reforms.
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