ERT meets European Council President, António Costa

Brussels, 5 December 2024: A delegation from the European Round Table for Industry (ERT) meets the newly arrived President of the European Council, António Costa, in Brussels today. The meeting is part of a longstanding pattern of ERT meetings with the Presidents of the EU institutions and heads of governments across the EU-27.

The purpose is to share points of cross-sectoral consensus among the Members of ERT and discuss the best ways to empower a renewed long-term competitive strategy for Europe.

ERT Members, comprising some 60 CEOs and Chairs of the most significant industrial and technology companies in Europe, are committed to the European project and the peace and prosperity that the EU has provided for numerous decades.

As a fresh EU mandate has begun this week, ERT Chair Jean-François van Boxmeer and Secretary General, Anthony Gooch Gálvez exchanged views with President Costa on the most pressing challenges of the moment, notably in light of the Budapest Declaration issued by the European Council in October. As major employers, innovators and investors in European countries, industry seeks to contribute solutions.

The leaders exchanged on the following priority areas:

1. Strengthening Europe – Competitiveness & the Single Market*. ERT is a vocal advocate for the EU Single Market as a unique source of prosperity and resilience. The release of the Letta and Draghi Reports and the European Council’s role in advancing their recommendations provide a runway to invest fresh political capital in completing the Single Market. This is a demanding, yet worthwhile objective, as it would benefit citizens across the EU-27 and strengthen Europe’s place in an increasingly fractured world order. A “New Horizontal Single Market Strategy”, is due to be proposed by the European Commission in mid-2025 and with its upcoming Complete to Compete project, ERT recognises the critical importance of Members States’ support for the completion of the Single Market. ERT encourages President Costa to mobilise heads of government in the EU on this once-in-a-generation opportunity to advance this objective and transform the EU’s competitiveness.
2. ERT fully supports President Costa’s ambition for a targeted deepening of the EU’s domestic capital markets within the next two years. Considering the vast amounts of investment needed to implement Draghi’s recommendations (Draghi mentioned €800bn a year), this is the only way to raise sufficient financing for European companies, startups and infrastructure projects. Unlocking access to much more private investment in Europe is even more important as international investors have markedly cooled down on Europe due to the EU’s ‘regulation overload’ and low growth prospects.
3. European industry is mindful of the importance that in the EU’s next Multiannual budget, as the EU tries to catch-up on critical innovation. Member States should provide sufficient financing – in the order of at least €200 billion – for the successor of the EU’s Research & Innovation Programme Horizon Europe.

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Note to Editors:

* More information on ERT’s Single Market campaign can be found here: https://ert.eu/single-market. See in particular the Compendium and Technical Study.

** Link to the Competitiveness Council conclusions related to the Single Market: https://data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/ST-10298-2024-INIT/en/pdf.

° Link to energy publications (competitiveness of energy-intensive industries & energy infrastructure): https://ert.eu/documents/energy2024/.

ERT’s recently released publication The Digital Transformation of Industry is available here:

https://ert.eu/documents/digitaltransformation2024/

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