Joint Declaration Industry warns stagnant research spending could weaken European competitiveness

Related Vendors

Cecimo European Commitee for the Co-Operation of the Machine Tool Industries

HASCO Hasenclever GmbH + Co KG

Jongen Werkzeugtechnik GmbH

AMPCO METAL Deutschland GbmH

Europe’s widening innovation and productivity gap is increasing pressure on the EU to strengthen research funding. Industry associations are calling for a substantially larger FP10 budget to support competitiveness, technology development and cross-border collaboration.

Europe has reached a decisive point in its efforts to strengthen its competitiveness, according to a joint declaration endorsed by Cecimo, the European Association of Manufacturing Technologies, and 86 other European associations representing key research, development and innovation stakeholders.

The declaration refers to the Draghi report on European competitiveness, which identifies stalled productivity growth, a widening innovation gap with the United States and China, and the risk of a gradual decline in Europe’s global economic position. The Competitiveness Compass and the EU’s political guidelines also place research, development and innovation at the centre of efforts to reverse this trend.

The associations are calling on the EU institutions to reflect this ambition in the design and funding of the next Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, known as FP10.

The Draghi report estimates that an additional €800 billion in annual investment is needed to close Europe’s competitiveness gap, with research and innovation expected to play a central role in generating sustainable productivity growth.

“Innovation-led productivity growth is not merely an economic imperative — it is the only credible path to financing Europe’s green and digital transitions, its open strategic autonomy, and its social model”, the joint declaration states.

According to the signatories, FP10 will be the EU’s main instrument for supporting this transformation. They point to the programme’s role in mobilising private investment, advancing technologies and establishing cross-border research and innovation networks that individual member states could not create on the same scale.

However, current European spending on research, development and innovation remains insufficient, the associations argue. Europe invests a smaller share of its gross domestic product in research and development than its main global competitors.

The signatories also refer to the ex-post evaluation of Horizon 2020, which found that EU funding helped mobilise additional private and national investment. They warn that reducing the FP10 budget or allowing it to stagnate could weaken public-private partnerships, technology development programmes and international research networks.

The associations therefore call on the EU institutions to:

• Allocate a substantially larger budget to FP10 for the 2028–2034 Multiannual Financial Framework. They argue that the funding level should reflect the ambitions set out in the Draghi report and the Competitiveness Compass.

• Reinforce collaborative, industry-driven RD&I through a strengthened Pillar II, ensuring that public-private partnerships continue to reduce investment risk, accelerate technology maturation and translate research excellence into market-ready innovations that boost productivity;

• Ensure FP10, together with ECF, supports the full RD&I continuum — from fundamental research to deployment and scale-up — aligned with EU strategic priorities and clearly defined industrial needs, including the green and digital transitions and European security and resilience. Preserving a strong ECF and FP10, both in terms of budget and in terms of governance and synergies between the two programmes is essential to support the entire innovation cycle, strengthen Europe’s industrial base, and deliver on the Union’s competitiveness objectives.

(ID:50898373)