ERT acknowledges first important steps by EU Commission to implement Draghi Report

Brussels, 26 February 2025: The European Industry Summit took place earlier today, chaired by Dr Ilham Kadri, President of CEFIC and Vice-Chair of ERT. It was an occasion at which Commission President Ursula von der Leyen presented a triple pack of much-awaited new measures, in the presence of corporate leaders, sectoral associations, SMEs and union leaders, coinciding with the first anniversary of the Antwerp Declaration. ERT was present in Antwerp represented by Chair, Jean-François van Boxmeer and Secretary General, Anthony Gooch Gálvez.

The delivery of the Clean Industrial Deal, the Affordable Energy Action Plan and the Omnibus Simplification Package within its first 100 days is an important signal of how the new Commission intends to advance. It demonstrates how the von der Leyen 2 team is working to translate the “Draghi prescription” into EU action.

ERT – as the high level forum of the leaders of some of Europe’s most significant industrial companies and employers – has engaged with the Commission in recent months providing input both on 1) the Clean Industrial Deal including the Affordable Energy Action Plan and 2. the Simplification Omnibus.

In its positions on these subjects, ERT’s core recommendations are:

1 .Go For Scale: put circularity alongside decarbonisation at the centre of the Clean Industrial Deal: break the ‘deadlock’ holding back Europe’s circular economy from scaling up, provide business cases for new key technologies, and reduce unhealthy dependencies in areas like Critical Raw Materials.

2 . Back Critical Industries: by providing financial support to retain Europe’s energy-intensive industries & value chains, to bridge the time needed for Europe to decarbonise & electrify, build-up sufficient supply of affordable renewables and low-carbon energy³. The defence & security imperative only serves to reinforce this.

3 . Keep it simple: commit to a moratorium on administrative burden so Europe’s industries can free up capacity to creating real value, deliver state-of-the art solutions to Europe’s challenges and compete globally.

4 . Embrace risk: the precondition for growth: by providing a European path to enabling private sector investment in high risk/high return investments in Europe’s emerging companies ending the decade old wait to create deeper capital and debt markets.

As outlined by the Commission’s work programme, many more steps will be needed to revive Europe’s competitiveness. Europe’s companies – big and small – need a simplified rulebook and a Single Market worthy of its name.

ENDS

A full list of the Membership of ERT is accessible here.

In the most recent survey of Membership of ERT, 80% of ERT Members said if the Draghi Report was implemented in full, their companies would reinvest in the EU within 3 years. Details here.

Simplification came back as the No.1 action with the highest potential impact to make Europe again the first choice to operate and invest in. Simplification will not only be the driver of more investment by existing industry – it will also make Europe a much better place for innovators and start-ups. Details here.

* ERT laid bare the need to strengthen Europe’s energy infrastructure and address the challenges of energy equation for energy-intensive industries in two publications issued last year. Details here.