The European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) has recently published a study that provides an extensive, evidence-based overview of the conditions for enhancing competitiveness in the European Union’s pathway towards the clean transition, with a focus on the areas where implementation is more urgent and requires acceleration. Building on its 2025 flagship report “Delivering the EU Green Deal: Progress towards targets”, the report explores the nexus between the clean transition and EU competitiveness from an integrated perspective, demonstrating that the clean transition is one of the strongest foundations for Europe’s competitiveness, requiring a coherent and transformative policy and investment effort to secure Europe’s sustainable prosperity.

The study argues that accelerating decarbonisation, innovation and self-reliance is essential for safeguarding Europe’s economic prosperity and stability, social justice and public-health outcomes. Supporting this thesis, the report shows that investing in climate action and nature restoration can bring substantial economic returns, while missing climate targets could lead to losses of at least 0.7% of GDP annually by 2050, even without considering the impacts of the multiplication of extreme climate events. This stresses the point that inaction is expensive and carries considerable risk.

The analysis is framed around the Competitiveness Compass, which links clean transition policies to three pillars: A joint roadmap for decarbonisation and competitiveness; Reducing excessive dependencies and increasing security; and Closing the innovation gap. Concerning the role of research and innovation, the report argues that they are central to Europe’s strategic objectives - notably the EU’s ambitions for decarbonisation and the transition to a net-zero economy - and thus stand at the core of the EU’s capacity to deliver a competitive clean transition. The study recognises that scientific breakthroughs often fail to become market-ready products and thus emphasises the need to close the innovation gap, prioritising R&I investment, public-private collaboration, and startup scaling, especially in clean technologies. Conditions identified as enabling the strengthening of Europe’s innovation ecosystems include adaptive regulation, long-term policy direction, mission-oriented partnerships, and improved coordination across governance levels.

Furthermore, the report points to the fact that although the EU remains a leader in clean energy R&I and public investment, it lags in private investment, smart technologies, and manufacturing, risking competitiveness against global competitors. For this reason, it insists on the need for mobilising private finance calls for scaling up sustainable debt instruments, improving access to private finance for innovative companies and deploying public finance to de-risk and crowd-in investments. In the energy sector in particular, the analysis finds that an annual average investment of approximately €660 billion is needed (2026–2030) for the EU’s energy transition and delivering secure, clean and affordable energy for all. 

The report also examines the implications of dependence on fossil fuels, especially in times of geopolitical volatility, which highlights the growing role of renewable energy not only in achieving climate objectives, but also in strengthening the EU’s energy resilience and reducing reliance on imported fossil fuels. The study recognises that progress is particularly advanced in the electricity sector, where renewable energy accounted for 48% of EU electricity production in 2024, making it the leading source of electricity generation. As electricity currently represents 23% of total final energy consumption in the EU, emphasis is put on accelerating electrification across transport, buildings, and industry, alongside continued renewable deployment. The report highlights that investing in modernising the EU’s energy system away from imported fossil fuels has already created new jobs and business opportunities in Europe. Furthermore, the study underscores that supply chain dependencies and vulnerabilities linked to Critical Raw Materials also undermine EU competitiveness and impede the twin green and digital transitions. To reduce these external dependencies, it calls for a stronger circular-economy approach.

Overall, this work advances the identification of evidence-based enablers for the clean transition, bridging the previous European Commission’s headline priority (2019-2024)  - the European Green Deal - and the current Commission’s competitiveness agenda (2024-2029), where the clean transition is central.  EERA welcomes the JRC report’s emphasis on the enabling role of innovation and research in speeding up the clean transition while strengthening Europe’s competitiveness, and supports its main thesis that competitiveness and the clean transition should be pursued jointly rather than treated as competing objectives. In this context, EERA will continue to advocate for the green transition to be viewed as a source of industrial and technological leadership, and not as a constraint on competitiveness.