High-level conference on competitiveness
On Tuesday 16 September 2025, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Professor Mario Draghi opened a high-level conference to review the Commission's progress in implementing the recommendations set out in Draghi's report on the future of European competitiveness.
Turning recommendations into reality
In September 2024, former European Central Bank President Mario Draghi unveiled his landmark report, outlining the barriers to growth that Europe faces and providing concrete recommendations on how we can overcome them.
In January 2025, the Commission presented the competitiveness compass, our roadmap to restoring European dynamism and growth, inspired by the Draghi report. 90% of its flagship initiatives are directly inspired by Draghi’s most pressing recommendations.
With more than half of initiatives already delivered, and over €1 trillion mobilised across innovation, clean tech and security, the compass is ensuring Europe remains competitive, sustainable and resilient.
Delivering tangible results
Six months after the launch of the compass, the Commission has already adopted:
Since the publication of the Draghi report, the Commission has begun work on translating its recommendations into reality, focusing on a number of priority areas:
- Innovation
- €200 billion mobilised for investment in AI, including €20 billion for AI gigafactories
- New quantum strategy
- New start-up and scale-up strategy
- Choose Europe initiative
- Defence investment
- €150 billion in funding thanks to the SAFE initiative
- Decarbonisation
- More than €100 billion mobilised via the Clean Industrial Deal
- Action plans for cars, steel, and chemicals
- New 2040 climate targets
- Finance
- €70 billion to support innovative companies via TechEU
- New strategy for the savings and investment union
- Business
- €8.4 billion in savings thanks to simplification measures
- New single market strategy
- Trade
- Agreements made with Mercosur and Mexico
- Agreements with India and Indonesia on the horizon
Next steps
The high-level conference comes shortly after the 2025 State of the Union address, in which President von der Leyen set out the next phase to strengthen Europe's competitiveness, including
- investments in digital and clean technologies
- new measures to cut business costs and complete the savings and investment union
- a single market roadmap to 2028, covering capital, services, energy, telecoms, the ‘28th regime’, and a new ‘fifth freedom' for knowledge and innovation
- fresh initiatives in artificial intelligence, quantum, batteries and clean technologies
This page was last updated on 16 September 2025