Europäischer Fonds für Wettbewerbsfähigkeit (ECF)

Upon invitation by SME Europe and the EPP group, Rapporteur Pehr Granfalk joined EP rapporteur Christian Ehler and EESC rapporteur Milena Angelova to discuss their respective opinions on the European Competitiveness Fund.

THE EUROPEAN COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS (CoR)

highlights the key role of local and regional authorities not only as eligible beneficiaries of the fund, but also as key enablers, facilitators and testbeds of local regional innovation ecosystems;

suggests that representatives of local and regional authorities be involved in the advisory boards and governance structures of the ECF;

urges for competitiveness to be defined as measures that result in increased economic growth, innovation, territorial resilience, and productivity in response to market demand within the Single Market, as well as better quality in terms of products and services and an improved price ratio for products and services;

while welcoming the simplification, flexibility, synergies and consolidation of funding in the ECF, underlines that the merging of 14 previous funding programmes into one instrument may pose a challenge to adequately address the funding needs in these policy fields and avoid losing the effective tools that were in place in the previous programmes in reaching out to the local and regional level;

suggests a dedicated article on place-based innovation, ensuring that the ECF promotes and leverages the potential of place-based innovation broadening the potential for productivity growth while promoting economic growth in all types of places;

holds that an essential objective of the ECF should be to advance and support the completion of the Single Market by enabling businesses, including SMEs and startups, to grow, scale and innovate.