Clean Industrial Deal

Research, Technology & Industrial Capacity

The next work programme will channel major investments into Europe’s industrial and scientific transformation. A €600 million flagship call under the Clean Industrial Deal will bridge R&I and deployment, fostering synergies with the Innovation Fund and supporting fusion through new PPPs. In life sciences, the Commission will establish a network of ATMP Centres of Excellence (€4 million), pilot stepwise collaborative health research funding, and invest €50 million in multi-modal genAI for biomedical research. €170 million will support a new health–climate agenda, complemented by global research collaboration and foresight on life sciences skills.

Infrastructure & Strategic Resources

The European Grid Package will fast-track expansion and modernisation of transmission and distribution networks, deepening market integration and lowering bills. It streamlines TEN-E, accelerates permitting — including environmental assessments — and mandates integrated, cross-border planning with effective cost-sharing, focusing on interconnectors and distribution grids. It prioritises digitalisation, flexibility and efficient use of existing assets, while increasing visibility of manufacturing supply needs. An EIB “grids manufacturing package” (≈€1.5 bn) will underpin EU component capacity, and an “Energy Highways” effort will tackle critical bottlenecks. Together, the measures unlock renewables and storage, strengthen security of supply, and support electrification at least cost.

Infrastructure & Strategic Resources

This Act will accelerate industrial decarbonisation by clearing permitting bottlenecks, strengthening clean-product demand and de-risking investment. It streamlines access to energy and infrastructure (i.e. building on NZIA, TEN-E and the emergency permitting toolbox) through acceleration areas, one-stop shops and, where allowed, tacit approvals, while maintaining environmental safeguards. It introduces resilience and sustainability criteria (clean, circular, cybersecure) across EU/national programmes and procurement, and pilots a simple carbon-intensity label—starting with steel in 2025, followed by cement—to unlock targeted incentives and enable international alignment. Coupled with the Clean Industrial Deal and related affordability measures, it aims to lower costs, shorten lead times and scale EU clean manufacturing, with a legislative proposal.

Infrastructure & Strategic Resources

The EU will establish the Platform to aggregate industrial demand, coordinate tenders, and secure diversified supplies for strategic value chains. Building on AggregateEU and complementing the Critical Raw Materials Act, the platform will align procurement across sectors, lower transaction costs for SMEs, and leverage EU and national de-risking tools. A dedicated EU Critical Raw Materials Centre will provide the purchasing backbone, organising joint buying for interested firms with Member States, coordinating strategic stockpiles, monitoring supply chains, and designing financial products for upstream projects in the EU and partner countries.

Infrastructure & Strategic Resources

The hubs will scale EU recycling into an integrated network. Built around smart specialisation, hubs will pool cross-border waste and by-product streams, aggregate demand for secondary raw materials, and coordinate permitting, logistics and standards. They will identify strategic projects with Member States and industry, drawing on CRMA Strategic Projects, IPCEI-like instruments and blended finance (InvestEU/EIB) to reach bankable scale. Harmonised end-of-waste and by-product criteria, benchmarks for recyclates, and Digital Product Passports will improve traceability and uptake. The Hubs will support industrial symbiosis, infrastructure corridors, and streamline shipments, accelerating the shift from linear chains to a Single Market for circular feedstocks.

Competitiveness, Innovation & Strategic Investment

CISAF sets simplified rules for Member States to back decarbonisation, clean-tech manufacturing and energy, while preserving the Single Market. It clarifies when grants, tax credits and accelerated depreciation are compatible, favours competitive tenders, and permits funding-gap methods. It aligns with the Net-Zero Industry Act to build EU value chains and invites proportionate European-preference criteria consistent with EU law, while crowding in private capital through risk-sharing schemes. The framework complements guidance on CfDs/PPAs and cross-border forward capacity allocation, giving industry and administrations longer planning horizon and legal certainty to invest at speed and scale.

Competitiveness, Innovation & Strategic Investment

The Commission will overhaul the GBER to cut red tape and streamline compatibility conditions while preserving a level playing field. The review fixes textual inconsistencies, updates definitions, and reflects new priorities (i.e. social-economy finance, training/employment aid, and SGEI/affordable housing) to ease use by SMEs, start-ups and granting authorities. It will reduce notifications, improve readability, and give Member States more design flexibility, with transparency and monitoring maintained. As the current GBER expires end-2026, the revision will also prolong its application.

Competitiveness, Innovation & Strategic Investment

Lifts the EU guarantee by EUR 2.5 billion, provisioned from EFSI surpluses and reflows, to mobilise EUR 25 billion. It is paired with extended combinations of legacy instruments and targets EUR 50 billion additional investment in this MFF. It adds an InvestEU financial instrument under the Member State compartment, enabling funded equity and deployment in non-euro currencies, and encourages swift national transfers. Simplifications reduce reporting and adjust SME rules, delivering EUR 350 million in cost savings. The extra capacity will back higher-risk equity, debt and guarantees for Clean Industrial Deal priorities (i.e. clean-tech manufacturing, grids and energy infrastructure, clean mobility, and recycling) including a Clean Tech Guarantee Facility via the EIB Group.

Competitiveness, Innovation & Strategic Investment

New IPCEIs will reinforce Europe’s strategic capabilities in AI and computing through two coordinated projects: one advancing beyond-state-of-the-art research and first industrial deployment of federated, distributed AI services; the other building large-scale computing infrastructure and services. These initiatives complement national efforts, use public-private partnerships, and fast-track innovation and deployment across the digital stack. To speed delivery, the Commission will establish a support hub to accelerate design and launch, and work with the EIB to create a one-stop shop for grant preparation and financial structuring. The approach will also back IPCEIs in circular advanced materials for clean technologies and strengthen decarbonisation.

Competitiveness, Innovation & Strategic Investment

To amplify the Innovation Fund’s impact, the Commission will mobilise additional financing for projects awarded a STEP Sovereignty Seal by creating stronger synergies between EU instruments and Member-State schemes. It will align funding criteria between the Innovation Fund and national support to speed State-aid decisions for STEP-labelled projects and encourage governments to commit co-financing, maximising deployment across EU regions. The STEP seal will function as a streamlined fast lane for bankable industrial decarbonisation and clean-tech investments, improving predictability, reducing transaction costs, and crowding in private capital through de-risking, while safeguarding competition and cohesion across the Single Market.

Competitiveness, Innovation & Strategic Investment

The Commission, together with the EIB Group and private investors, will deploy TechEU to close Europe’s late-stage financing gap for disruptive innovators, using debt, equity and quasi-equity delivered directly and via financial intermediaries. It targets scale-ups in AI, clean tech, critical raw materials, energy storage, quantum, semiconductors, life sciences and neurotechnology, complementing InvestEU and the Clean Industrial Deal. TechEU will also support exit pathways and late-growth rounds, and anchor a deeper pan-European market through ETCI 2.0 to crowd-in institutional capital. The programme aims to build industrial capacity, de-risk strategic projects and mobilise significant private investment at scale.

Human Capital, Skills & Talent Mobility

The plan will deliver EU-level support to help national, regional and local authorities provide affordable, sustainable homes, while respecting subsidiarity. It addresses supply–demand imbalances, high building costs, permitting bottlenecks and skills shortages that drive up prices. Measures will mobilise investment (including an EIB platform), allow more cohesion funding for housing, adapt State-aid rules, and link renovations to the Social Climate Fund. The plan will accelerate permitting and procurement, improve rental-market functioning, and provide technical assistance so projects can scale quickly and fairly across regions and cities.

Human Capital, Skills & Talent Mobility

The Commission will set up an EU-wide Observatory to hard-wire fairness into the clean transition. It will develop standardised indicators, collect best practices and enable data sharing to track impacts on employment, quality jobs, job-to-job transitions, reskilling, investment needs, social protection and access to essential services. It will anchor transparent dialogue with social partners, regions, cities and civil society, and feed reforms to improve delivery of the Just Transition Fund and inform future instruments under the next MFF. Complementary action includes a European Affordable Housing Plan to ease workforce mobility in metropolitan areas.

Human Capital, Skills & Talent Mobility

Developed with EU social partners in 2025, the Quality Jobs Roadmap will set a coherent EU strategy to raise job quality alongside competitiveness. It will back fair wages, high health-and-safety standards, decent working conditions, work-life balance, gender equality and wider collective bargaining; strengthen enforcement of work-related rights; and support access to training and fair job-to-job transitions, drawing on the European Pillar of Social Rights. It will align with the Competitiveness Compass, Union of Skills and the Clean Industrial Deal so decarbonisation creates attractive jobs and regional cohesion, and may announce targeted legislative and non-legislative actions with robust monitoring and evaluation.

Human Capital, Skills & Talent Mobility

The initiative will remove barriers to cross-border work by making skills and qualifications usable across the Single Market. It will consider a legislative proposal to ease mobility and promote common EU formats for interoperable digital credentials, building on EQF, Europass and ESCO. Recognition in regulated professions will be expanded and modernised using digital tools, while simpler common rules will be explored to recognise third-country nationals’ skills. In parallel, the EU will develop a framework for automatic recognition of qualifications and learning periods in school, VET and higher education, and examine accession to the Lisbon Recognition Convention.

Single Market Deepening & Harmonisation

It will create an optional, EU-wide corporate framework—digital by default—to let innovative firms set up, operate, and raise capital seamlessly across borders. The proposal may rely on TFEU Article 352 or a harmonised national form via Articles 50/114, with a progressive, modular design. It targets 48-hour incorporation and “once-only” data sharing via BRIS, EUID, and an EU Company Certificate, leveraging the European Business Wallet. Investment-friendly options under consideration include simpler capital increases, flexible share classes, and standard private-equity terms. Complementing the European Innovation Act, it cuts failure costs, fragmentation, and compliance burdens.

Single Market Deepening & Harmonisation

The Act will create a true Single Market for waste and secondary raw materials, boosting supply and demand for quality recyclates at competitive prices. It will harmonise end-of-waste criteria, simplify and expand extended producer responsibility (including a one-stop producer registry), and revise e-waste rules to recover critical materials, while aligning with the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products framework. Public procurement criteria, incentives for scrap use, and digitalised demolition permits will accelerate circular design and recycling. Strong enforcement—including for e-commerce channels—will ensure compliance.

Single Market Deepening & Harmonisation

The Commission will modernise the Horizontal and Non-Horizontal Merger Guidelines to reflect dynamic, innovation-driven competition and Europe’s strategic needs. The review will better weigh innovation, resilience, investment intensity in strategic sectors; recognise supply-chain security and scale economies where relevant; and clarify treatment of ecosystem and data-driven effects. The update will codify recent case law and practice, streamline evidence standards, and provide faster procedures, including clearer safe harbours and remedies guidance. While preserving a level playing field, the revised approach will align merger control with the competitiveness agenda, closing the innovation gap, enabling efficient European scale, and supporting decarbonisation.

Single Market Deepening & Harmonisation

The Commission will overhaul the EU procurement framework to make public spending a strategic lever for competitiveness, security and innovation. The revision will enable sustainability, resilience and European-preference criteria in strategic sectors, while staying consistent with EU and international commitments. It will simplify and digitise procedures, embed once-only data reuse, curb overspecification, and promote innovation-friendly tools (e.g. outcome-based/R&D purchases, clearer IP clauses). Rules will be consolidated across legislation to ease use by all administrations and open tenders to startups and SMEs. Defence and security procurement will be modernised and cross-border aggregation strengthened to create lead markets and scale.

External Strategy, Economic Security & Democratic Resilience

The FIS revision will harden Europe’s economic security while keeping the EU open to investment. It requires every Member State to run a pre-closing screening regime and aligns scope, timelines and information via a single EU cooperation channel. Coverage extends to intra-EU deals made through EU subsidiaries controlled by non-EU parents, closing circumvention gaps. Notifications will focus on targets in Annex II high-risk areas and on projects/programmes of Union interest (Annex I). The system streamlines multi-country cases, preserves national decision-making, and ensures coherence with the EU Merger Regulation (Art. 21(4)), the Foreign Subsidies Regulation, NIS2 and the CER Directive. A 15-month transition, annual reporting and secure IT tools underpin implementation.

External Strategy, Economic Security & Democratic Resilience

The Commission will adopt the guidelines to clarify core concepts (e.g. how distortive effects will be assessed, how any benefits are balanced, and when the Commission may call in below-threshold mergers that threaten a level playing field). Enforcement will be more proactive, with ex officio investigations targeted at strategic sectors to deter subsidy-fuelled distortions before they scale. In parallel, the EU’s defensive toolbox will be tightened: the Commission stands ready to adjust tariffs within WTO-bound ceilings (including for environmental protection), use trade-defence instruments faster (shorter timelines, greater ex officio use), and explore further reforms of the TDI rulebook, ensuring open markets are matched by firm action against unfair subsidisation.