At stake is the EU’s next research and innovation programme, and the partnerships, technology pipelines and talent networks needed to turn scientific progress into industrial productivity.
A coalition of 86 European associations, including CECE, has signed a joint declaration urging EU institutions to give FP10, the next Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, the budget and structure needed to strengthen productivity, accelerate technology development and reinforce industrial resilience.
Their warning is blunt: Europe’s productivity growth has stalled, while its innovation gap with the United States and China is widening. The declaration anchors that concern in Mario Draghi’s 2024 report on European competitiveness, which has become a key reference point in Brussels’ debate over how to restore Europe’s industrial and technological momentum.
According to the Draghi report, the EU needs around €800 billion in additional annual investment to close its competitiveness gap. For the signatories, research and innovation are not a side chapter of that agenda, but one of the main levers for restoring productivity, financing the green and digital transitions, supporting Europe’s open strategic autonomy and sustaining its social model.
The EU has placed research, development and innovation at the centre of its Competitiveness Compass; for the associations, however, recognition is only the starting point. A central argument of the joint declaration is that underfunding research and development is a false economy. Europe currently invests significantly less in R&D as a share of GDP than its main global competitors, despite clear evidence of the leverage effect of EU funding. As demonstrated by the Horizon 2020 ex-post evaluation, every euro of EU public investment generates multiples in private and national co-investment.
Cutting or stagnating FP10’s budget would directly threaten this leverage effect, risking the erosion of public-private partnerships, technology maturation pipelines, and talent networks across the continent.
The associations are therefore asking EU institutions to move on three fronts:
• Increase FP10’s budget under the 2028–2034 Multiannual Financial Framework, in line with the level of ambition set out in the Draghi report and the Competitiveness Compass.
• Strengthen collaborative, industry-driven RD&I through a reinforced Pillar II, so that public-private partnerships can continue to reduce investment risk, accelerate technology maturation and turn research excellence into market-ready innovations.
• Support the full innovation cycle, with FP10 and the European Competitiveness Fund working together from fundamental research to deployment and scale-up. The signatories argue that both programmes need strong budgets, clear governance and effective synergies if Europe is to reinforce its industrial base and meet its competitiveness objectives.
The coalition highlights that the window of opportunity for EU policymakers is narrow. Decisions taken over the coming months on the 2028–2034 Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) will determine whether Europe equips itself with the necessary RD&I firepower to compete globally and sustain its long-term prosperity.
Reiterating their commitment, the 86 signatory associations declared themselves ready to collaborate directly with EU institutions to design an FP10 that is bold, properly resourced, and capable of driving the innovation-led productivity growth Europe urgently requires.
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