Competitiveness, Innovation & Strategic Investment

A market-based, privately managed vehicle deployed via the EIC Fund to bridge Europe’s late-stage equity gap for deep-tech scaleups. It will mobilise substantial private capital and make direct equity investments in strategic sectors (i.e. AI, quantum, advanced semiconductors, biotech, clean tech, defence and space) reinforcing technological sovereignty and economic security. Operating without prejudice to the next MFF, the Fund will coordinate closely with InvestEU and complement the European Tech Champions Initiative (including ETCI 2.0), alongside EIB Group instruments. By tackling fragmented capital markets and financing needs with ticket sizes above €100 million, it will help Europe retain and scale its most promising companies.

The Commission is revising the TTBER and accompanying Guidelines to modernise EU rules for IP licensing and speed the diffusion of innovation. The draft updates clarify market-share safe harbours (including a longer grace period), address data licensing, strengthen soft safe-harbours for technology pools, and introduce guidance for licensing negotiation groups, alongside updated case-law on settlements and no-challenge clauses. The aim is greater legal certainty for pro-competitive collaboration (especially in data- and AI-intensive sectors) while safeguarding competition.

The Commission will propose a harmonised EU definition of startups, scaleups and innovative companies, building on existing SME and new small-mid cap (SMC) categories to ensure coherence across policies and datasets. This closes today’s patchwork of national and programme-specific definitions that hinders measurement and targeted support. The common taxonomy will underpin a European Startup & Scaleup Scoreboard and KPIs, enable tailored financing and simplification measures, and align eligibility across EU instruments and Member State schemes. It complements the Single Market Strategy’s formal SMC definition so high-growth companies can benefit from rules as they scale across borders.

This Act will accelerate industrial decarbonisation by clearing permitting bottlenecks, strengthening clean-product demand and de-risking investment. It streamlines access to energy and infrastructure (i.e. building on NZIA, TEN-E and the emergency permitting toolbox) through acceleration areas, one-stop shops and, where allowed, tacit approvals, while maintaining environmental safeguards. It introduces resilience and sustainability criteria (clean, circular, cybersecure) across EU/national programmes and procurement, and pilots a simple carbon-intensity label—starting with steel in 2025, followed by cement—to unlock targeted incentives and enable international alignment. Coupled with the Clean Industrial Deal and related affordability measures, it aims to lower costs, shorten lead times and scale EU clean manufacturing, with a legislative proposal.

The Lab to Unicorn Initiative will turn Europe’s scientific excellence into scaled companies. From 2026, the Commission will back a network of leading university-rooted startup and scale-up hubs to collaborate across borders, opening shared access to services, infrastructures and corporate demand. A common blueprint will standardise licensing, royalty/revenue-sharing and equity models for universities and inventors, while capacity-building strengthens technology-transfer offices and embeds venture-builder roles in research organisations and universities. The Initiative will issue guidance on State-aid and IP rules so public institutions can grant IP and infrastructure access lawfully. Together, these measures compress time-to-market and raise Europe’s scale-up success rate.

The Commission will recalibrate state-aid rules so viable startups and scaleups can access temporary support without being misclassified as “undertakings in difficulty.” The review will update static financial tests that penalise high-growth, R&D-intensive firms, clarify eligibility, and enable bridge financing, liquidity support or restructuring aid where appropriate. Safeguards against propping up non-viable firms will remain, with stronger proportionality, time-limits and burden-sharing. Clearer guidance for universities and research organisations complements the effort, reducing uncertainty when IP or infrastructure is involved. The reform removes unintended barriers to growth while preserving a level playing field.

Savings and Investment Accounts are presented as a voluntary route for individuals to invest alongside everyday bank or savings accounts. They may hold shares, bonds or funds, use simple tax rules and offer tax benefits. The Commission encourages Member States to establish or improve these accounts, while regulated providers must operate within EU investor-protection rules and give clear, comprehensible product information.

The Commission, together with the EIB Group and private investors, will deploy TechEU to close Europe’s late-stage financing gap for disruptive innovators, using debt, equity and quasi-equity delivered directly and via financial intermediaries. It targets scale-ups in AI, clean tech, critical raw materials, energy storage, quantum, semiconductors, life sciences and neurotechnology, complementing InvestEU and the Clean Industrial Deal. TechEU will also support exit pathways and late-growth rounds, and anchor a deeper pan-European market through ETCI 2.0 to crowd-in institutional capital. The programme aims to build industrial capacity, de-risk strategic projects and mobilise significant private investment at scale.

The EU’s investment engine for 2028–2034 will consolidate 14 programmes under a single rulebook and access point to back projects from research to scale-up, deployment and manufacturing. It will operate through four policy windows—clean transition, digital leadership, health/biotech/bioeconomy, and resilience/security/defence/space—and mobilise the full EU financial toolbox, including an ECF InvestEU instrument, alongside project advisory and SME services. The Fund’s indicative envelope is €234.3 billion, with Horizon Europe tightly connected for a seamless journey from idea to market. Overall, the ECF de-risks private capital, cuts fragmentation, and accelerates high-impact investments with EU value added.

The Multiannual Financial Framework for 2028-2034 is the Commission's proposal for the next long-term EU budget, presented on 16 July 2025. The Commission proposes a budget of almost €2 trillion, or 1.26% of the average EU gross national income between 2028 and 2034. It says the budget would invest in people, EU countries and regions, drive prosperity through competitiveness, research and innovation, protect people and build preparedness and resilience, build partnerships for a stronger Europe in the world, and bring in new own resources. The Commission says the design includes more flexibility across the budget, national and regional partnership plans, and simpler, more streamlined and harmonised EU financial programmes. The framework will run for seven years and should come into force in January 2028. The proposal is being negotiated with the European Parliament and the Council of the EU before final adoption.

The Savings and Investments Union programme seeks to increase retail participation, channel savings into productive investment and strengthen EU capital markets. It includes a blueprint and tax recommendation for savings and investment accounts, a financial-literacy strategy, pension measures and measures on institutional equity investment. Further work covers venture and growth capital, cross-border investment barriers, trading and post-trading rules, supervision, banking integration and a mid-term review.

Lifts the EU guarantee by EUR 2.5 billion, provisioned from EFSI surpluses and reflows, to mobilise EUR 25 billion. It is paired with extended combinations of legacy instruments and targets EUR 50 billion additional investment in this MFF. It adds an InvestEU financial instrument under the Member State compartment, enabling funded equity and deployment in non-euro currencies, and encourages swift national transfers. Simplifications reduce reporting and adjust SME rules, delivering EUR 350 million in cost savings. The extra capacity will back higher-risk equity, debt and guarantees for Clean Industrial Deal priorities (i.e. clean-tech manufacturing, grids and energy infrastructure, clean mobility, and recycling) including a Clean Tech Guarantee Facility via the EIB Group.

The Competitiveness Coordination Tool joins the EU, Member States and industry to deploy major investment projects and pursue reforms supporting strategic value chains. Current projects range from AI Gigafactories and clean-transport corridors to batteries, energy connections, chemicals, med-biotech, bio-based materials, offsite construction, circularity hubs and advanced chips. Examples include €20 billion being mobilised for AI Gigafactories and €10 million of initial EU funding for the European Med-Biotech Accelerator. The Tool is testing a new way to coordinate investment across Member States.

The Commission will revise Regulation (EU) 1/2003 and its implementing act to make antitrust enforcement faster, digital-ready, coherent. Options include stand-alone data-preservation orders; inspection powers covering all business records regardless of storage; the ability to summon individuals; streamlined interim measures and time-bound commitment proceedings; and a modernised access-to-file regime via confidentiality-bound external advisors. The review may harmonise complainant and third-party participation and strengthen coordination where Member States use stricter unilateral-conduct laws, safeguarding single-market consistency. The initiative seeks effective application of Articles 101/102 while reducing administrative burden, incorporating case law, and clarifying rules.

The Pact will mobilise long-term institutional capital for Europe’s most innovative companies and funds. In coordination with the EIB Group, the Commission will convene pension funds, insurers and other asset owners to make voluntary allocations to EU funds-of-funds, venture capital vehicles and direct investments in unlisted scaleups. Commitments will be benchmarked, transparent and aligned with strategic technologies, complementing InvestEU, the EIC and the Scale-Up Europe Fund. The Pact will drive pan-European deployment, crowd-in private capital through de-risking structures, and deepen capital markets by expanding late-stage equity supply and patient growth finance.

The Commission is preparing a review of the European Venture Capital Funds (EuVECA) Regulation as part of its savings and investments union strategy, with adoption envisaged later in 2026. In January 2026 it opened two consultations, a targeted one for fund managers, businesses, investors and public authorities and a public one, seeking feedback on the obstacles faced by EU venture and growth capital funds and on possible measures to address them. Both consultations remained open until 12 March 2026. The Commission says it is also considering a possible broader policy initiative beyond the EuVECA framework, which would cover a wider range of venture and growth capital fund managers. It says the feedback will inform its policy work on venture and growth capital funds, which it links to the savings and investments union and to the EU startup and scaleup strategy.

The Commission will overhaul the GBER to cut red tape and streamline compatibility conditions while preserving a level playing field. The review fixes textual inconsistencies, updates definitions, and reflects new priorities (i.e. social-economy finance, training/employment aid, and SGEI/affordable housing) to ease use by SMEs, start-ups and granting authorities. It will reduce notifications, improve readability, and give Member States more design flexibility, with transparency and monitoring maintained. As the current GBER expires end-2026, the revision will also prolong its application.

The Commission will modernise the Horizontal and Non-Horizontal Merger Guidelines to reflect dynamic, innovation-driven competition and Europe’s strategic needs. The review will better weigh innovation, resilience, investment intensity in strategic sectors; recognise supply-chain security and scale economies where relevant; and clarify treatment of ecosystem and data-driven effects. The update will codify recent case law and practice, streamline evidence standards, and provide faster procedures, including clearer safe harbours and remedies guidance. While preserving a level playing field, the revised approach will align merger control with the competitiveness agenda, closing the innovation gap, enabling efficient European scale, and supporting decarbonisation.

Important Projects of Common European Interest enable Member States to fund cross-border innovation and infrastructure projects with benefits for the Union, the internal market and society. They bring public and private sectors together on large-scale projects that address market or systemic failures and societal challenges. Member States define the scope, select participating companies and projects, and fund them from national budgets. The Commission provides guidance and assesses proposals, while the Joint European Forum supports discussion of possible future IPCEIs.

The Commission will overhaul the EU procurement framework to make public spending a strategic lever for competitiveness, security and innovation. The revision will enable sustainability, resilience and European-preference criteria in strategic sectors, while staying consistent with EU and international commitments. It will simplify and digitise procedures, embed once-only data reuse, curb overspecification, and promote innovation-friendly tools (e.g. outcome-based/R&D purchases, clearer IP clauses). Rules will be consolidated across legislation to ease use by all administrations and open tenders to startups and SMEs. Defence and security procurement will be modernised and cross-border aggregation strengthened to create lead markets and scale.