Recommendations from Brussels stakeholders for the coexistence of FP10 and the Competitiveness Fund

Leru, The Guild, ISE, the European Alliance for Social Sciences and Humanities (EASSH) and Unica call on the European Commission to closely connect the European Competitiveness Fund (ECF) to an ambitious and self-standing FP10 in a position paper published on 03/07/2025.

"To effectively contribute to the renewed EU industrial policy, R&I must be at the heart of Europe’s economy, as Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has now pointed out on several occasions. However, R&I policy and investments should not be regarded as mere instruments to achieve industrial policy objectives", say the organisations.

After months of rumours that Horizon Europe would be integrated into a Competitiveness Fund, on 20/05, Ursula von der Leyen confirmed that it will remain a "self-standing programme" but be "tightly connected to the Competitiveness Fund".

Therefore, the associations state that "FP10 must remain the EU’s core instrument to finance R&I activities in the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) [...] While complementary, FP10 and the ECF will need to mobilise different instruments":

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