Priorități pentru noua Comisie Europeană 2025: Comerț liber și competitivitate în UE

Synopsis

How the Union's trade and industrial policy would have to change for European firms to compete. The study's argument is that the regulatory burden itself erodes productivity, and that a more open and flexible approach is needed to hold the bloc's position in the world.

It looks at the cost of compliance, which falls hardest on small and medium firms; at trade liberalisation with Ukraine and Moldova, which opens opportunities while putting pressure on European farmers held to stricter standards than their competitors; at measures such as the GDPR and the Chips Act, meant to reduce dependency but adding to compliance costs in the name of technological sovereignty; and at the imbalance with China, where subsidised industry puts European producers of electric vehicles and telecommunications equipment at a disadvantage. The recommendations are to lower production costs, support innovation and keep regulation friendly to trade.

Part of the series Priorities for the New European Commission 2025.