European Commission unveils the Competitiveness Compass for future growth and the Clean Industrial Deal

In January, the Commission presented its Competitiveness Compass, the first major initiative of this mandate, providing a strategic and clear framework to steer the Commission's work.

The Compass sets a path for Europe to become the place where future technologies, services, and clean products are invented, manufactured, and brought to market, while also becoming the first continent to achieve climate neutrality.

It transforms the recommendations of the Draghi report into a roadmap, setting out an approach and a selection of flagship measures to implement the three transformational imperatives needed to boost competitiveness:

1. Closing the innovation gap
2. Integrating decarbonisation policies with industrial, competition, economic, and trade policies
3. Reducing excessive dependencies and increasing security

These three pillars are complemented by five horizontal enablers, which are essential for strengthening competitiveness across all sectors:

1. Simplification
2. Removing barriers in the Single Market
3. Financing
4. Skills and quality jobs
5. Better coordination

The Compass includes several specific references relevant to EU public procurement policy, such as:

• European preference in public procurement for critical sectors and technologies
• New measures to encourage demand for low-carbon products, such as benchmarking/labelling, mandates, or preferences in public procurement, as well as financial incentives through contracts for difference
• Increased use of joint defence procurement
• Joint procurement of critical raw materials to reduce dependencies
• Simplification of reporting requirements for businesses

The Compass also sets out how we can facilitate access to affordable energy by, among others, putting forward the Clean Industrial Deal to help reduce carbon emissions, especially for energy intensive companies, and facilitate their transition to low carbon technologies. 

As part of the main elements of the Clean Industrial Deal, in order to boost demand for clean products, the European commission announced: 

• The Industrial Decarbonisation Accelerator Act, which increase demand for EU-made clean products, by introducing sustainability, resilience, and 'made in Europe' criteria in public and private procurements.
• The revision the Public Procurement Framework in 2026 to introduce sustainability, resilience and European preference criteria in public procurement for strategic sectors. 

More information: Factsheet - Competitiveness Compass.pdf, The Clean Industrial Deal, EU competitiveness - European Commission