The European Commission Competitiveness Compass – a Roadmap for Europe

The European Commission presented its Competitiveness Compass – its "rescue plan" to address the EU's lagging economic performance, innovation and productivity in the coming years. The initiative promises to coordinate industrial policy, decrease business regulation and boost investment. It focuses on closing the innovation gap to the USA; on addressing the static industrial structure and increasing the low private sector research and innovation spending. It seeks to close comparative disadvantages from high administrative and regulatory burden and high energy prices, while preserving the course to carbon neutrality. It also wants to accelerate the access to EU funds and repurpose them to sectors of strategic importance for Europe. This short briefing paper presents a summary of the main points of the Competitiveness Compass and analyses them.