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DRAFT REPORT (COM(2025)0555 – C100165/2025 – 2025/0555(COD))

On the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on establishing the European Competitiveness Fund ('ECF’), including the specific programme for defence research and innovation activities, repealing Regulations (EU) 2021/522, (EU) 2021/694, (EU) 2021/697, (EU) 2021/783, and amending Regulations (EU) 2021/696, (EU) 2023/588, (EU) [EDIP]

ITRE-PR-784506

Committee on Industry, Research and Energy · Rapporteur: Christian Ehler, Dan Nica

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The draft report sets out Parliament's amendments to the proposed regulation establishing the European Competitiveness Fund (ECF), a single fund with four policy windows and a defence research and innovation programme. It raises the financial envelope to EUR 257 730 000 000 for 2028-2034 and splits it across policy windows, a flexibility reserve and a skills target. It defines competitiveness, biotechnology, biomanufacturing, strategic dependencies and resilience, and rewrites the Fund's general and specific objectives. It creates a Competitiveness Seal, an Economic and Technological Advisory Council, a Stakeholder Group, an Investment Committee and Horizon Europe Pathway actions linking the ECF to research results. It sets up three defence research programmes (VPERED, SHIELD, DOBRE), a Critical Raw Materials envelope run by a CRM Centre, and new sections on energy infrastructure, industrial decarbonisation, biotechnology, sustainable prosperity, connectivity, technology infrastructure and agile digital leadership.

Committee position. The rapporteurs propose to amend the Commission proposal by sharpening the Fund's priorities, defining competitiveness, raising and ring-fencing the budget, creating new governance bodies and defence research programmes, and linking the ECF tightly to Horizon Europe.

Key points

  1. Adds a definition of competitiveness based on European companies competing globally on a level playing field, with lower energy costs, higher productivity and long-term public investment.
  2. Sets the ECF financial envelope for 1 January 2028 to 31 December 2034 at EUR 257 730 000 000 in current prices.
  3. Distributes the envelope across the four policy windows, the ECF InvestEU Instrument, advisory and SME activities, and a EUR 16 000 000 000 flexibility reserve.
  4. Requires 3% of the amounts under points (a) to (ed) to target skills development measures.
  5. Allows the Commission to reallocate funds between categories of expenditure up to 5%, with implementing acts above that ceiling.
  6. Renames the policy windows: Energy Infrastructure, Industrial Decarbonisation and Clean Technology; Health, Biotechnology and Sustainable Prosperity; Digital Infrastructure and Agile Digital Leadership; Critical Raw Materials, Security, Defence Industry and Space.
  7. Establishes a Competitiveness Seal as a quality label for high-quality projects, allowing cumulative funding from other ECF instruments, Union programmes and Member States, with a fast-track for Horizon Europe projects at Technology Readiness Level 7 or higher.
  8. Sets up an Economic and Technological Advisory Council of up to fifteen members, a Stakeholder Group to advise on calls, and an independent Investment Committee for the ECF InvestEU Instrument.
  9. Creates Horizon Europe Pathway actions in a dedicated part of the work programmes to deploy, commercialise, scale, license or standardise results from Horizon Europe and predecessor programmes.
  10. Raises the maximum budgetary guarantee under the EU Compartment of the ECF InvestEU Instrument to EUR 120 000 000 000, provisioned at 50%, and grants 50% of the EU guarantee to the EIB Group.
  11. Establishes the Vanguard Programme for Early Research in European Defence (VPERED), the Scaling High-Impact Innovation for European Leadership in Defence programme (SHIELD) and the Defence-Oriented Breakthrough Research for Europe programme (DOBRE), funded exclusively from the defence research budget.
  12. Entrusts the Critical Raw Materials budget to the Critical Raw Materials Centre and supports exploration, extraction, processing, recycling, purchasing, stockpiles, contracts for difference and a European market and pricing infrastructure.

Who is affected

  • European companies, start-ups, scale-ups and SMEs in the policy windows, which gain access to funding, advisory services and the EU for Business Network.
  • Defence and space industry and research organisations, which gain three new defence research programmes and ESA implementation tasks.
  • Member States, which may co-fund projects and rely on the Competitiveness Seal evaluation, and whose authorities get access rights to defence research reports.
  • Third countries and international organisations, which may be associated fully or partially to the ECF, including to individual space constellations.
  • Entities in non-associated third countries, which may join consortia at their own cost but receive ECF funding only where essential to the Union's resilience, security or economic security.

Figures and deadlines

  • EUR 257 730 000 000: financial envelope for the ECF for 1 January 2028 to 31 December 2034.
  • EUR 40 000 000 000 for the ECF InvestEU Instrument, with at least EUR 15 000 000 000 for Energy Infrastructure, EUR 5 000 000 000 for Health, EUR 15 000 000 000 for Digital and EUR 5 000 000 000 for Critical Raw Materials.
  • EUR 16 000 000 000 as a flexibility reserve to top up any budget line.
  • 3% of the total of all amounts under points (a) to (ed) for skills development measures.
  • 5% ceiling for Commission reallocation between categories of expenditure.
  • EUR 120 000 000 000: maximum budgetary guarantee under the EU Compartment of the ECF InvestEU Instrument, provisioned at 50%.
  • 50% of the EU guarantee of the EU compartment to be granted to the EIB Group.
  • 5 calendar years: period after an action during which transfer restrictions apply to recipients of ECF funding.

Legal basis: Article 294(2) and Articles 43(2), 168(5), 172, 173(3), 175, 182(4), 183, 188, 189(2), 192(1), 194(2), 212(2) and 322(1)(a) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.