The Institute for Competitiveness (I-Com) has presented the December 2022 report entitled “Fast track to EU Strategic Autonomy. Speed check for digital, green and health”, which focuses on how technological competition, industrial expertise and supply chains – from raw materials to final goods – interact, affecting European strategic autonomy in the three key areas of digital, health and energy.
Furthermore, the report aims to provide recommendations and points of reflection for high-level representatives from EU institutions, research and business organizations, trade and consumer associations and other relevant stakeholders, since EU’s strategic autonomy inside the European Institutions and Member States has lately become more heated in light of the current geopolitical and economic circumstances.
As presented in the report, geopolitical competition has shifted from military grounds to technological supremacy. As dominance is being played out in this way, recent phenomena – such as the Covid crisis and geopolitical tensions – have pushed towards the decrease in the dependence of supply chains on other actors. For these reasons, the trend towards EU strategic autonomy is becoming increasingly important, and is involving more and more technological domains and their related policies.
Chapter 1 focuses on geopolitical competition on the digital domain, which has shifted from military grounds to technological supremacy. As dominance is being played out in this way, recent phenomena – such as the Covid crisis and geopolitical tensions – have pushed towards the decrease in the dependence of supply chains on other actors. For these reasons, the trend towards EU strategic autonomy is becoming increasingly important.
Chapter 2 focuses on the relevance of the pandemic towards building a strong European and national health system and pharmaceutical industry. The past years have indeed revealed the risks of having an intricate system of global interdependence.
Chapter 3 covers the energy transition challenges and its implications for the EU autonomy. At the beginning, the chapter focuses on the energy crisis that the world and, particularly, Europe has slipped into over the past year. Then it moves to the state of the art in relation to energy efficiency and the promotion of renewable sources and the major EU policies in this area. While at the end it focuses on green supply chains and Europe’s efforts towards strategic autonomy.
Please find attached the full publication.
