The European Competitiveness Fund moves toward a decisive committee vote on 10 November, after Parliament’s rapporteurs and shadow rapporteurs reached agreement on a compromise on 22 October. According to Agence Europe, MEPs on the Industry, Research and Energy Committee are expected to approve the compromise amendments that day. The fund is the Commission’s flagship tool for competitiveness spending in the 2028-2034 budget cycle.
The Commission presented the proposal on 16 July 2025. It pools 14 programmes and carries a headline figure of €409 billion in current prices, with Horizon Europe listed as a self-standing programme connected to the fund. The proposal organises spending into four policy windows: clean transition and industrial decarbonisation, resilience and security with defence industry and space, digital leadership, and health, biotechnology, agriculture and bioeconomy.
Parliament has pushed back on the design of the European Competitiveness Fund from the start. Christian Ehler, the German EPP co-rapporteur, called the proposal unfinished in January and said too many crucial points were unclear. He shares the file with Dan Nica of the Socialists and Democrats. Their draft report, published on 20 April 2026, drew 2,287 amendments from MEPs.
The compromise raises the ambition on money. Agence Europe reports that the European Competitiveness Fund’s budget rises to €264 billion for 2028-2034. Science|Business reported that the rapporteurs’ earlier draft proposed €257.7 billion, so the new figure sits higher. The Commission’s figures and Parliament’s figures do not map neatly onto each other, because Parliament wants research funding handled differently.
That is the central fight. The compromise removes the programming of Horizon Europe’s second pillar from the European Competitiveness Fund and establishes what Agence Europe calls clear pathways instead. Parliament says it will not accept an interface that subjugates research and innovation to a top-down industrial policy. The earlier draft had proposed bridge funding called Horizon Europe Pathway Actions, with calls defined by an independent expert group.
Parliament also wants tighter control over how the Commission spends the European Competitiveness Fund. It refuses to grant the Commission seamless and frictionless budgetary flexibility and proposes a flexibility reserve instead. Science|Business reported that the rapporteurs’ draft sized that reserve at €16 billion. The same draft allocated large sums to security, including €54 billion for the defence industry and €50 billion for space.
On award criteria, excellence stays the primary test, but the compromise warns against excessive geographical concentration and safeguards technology neutrality. It allows a targeted Union preference for security, economic security or resilience. It also opens the door to full or partial association of third countries, including the United States, and says equipment or components should not come from a single third country that accounts for more than 50% of Union supply.
Business groups do not all agree with Parliament’s approach. BusinessEurope prefers the Commission’s integrated work programme for collaborative research, while research groups gave the rapporteurs’ pathway idea a cautious welcome. Agence Europe links Parliament’s stance to the Irish Presidency’s proposed disproportionate cuts to the fund in the next multiannual budget, which means the committee vote will shape the bargaining position for the whole negotiation.
If the committee confirms the deal on 10 November, the European Competitiveness Fund will head toward a plenary vote and then negotiations with the Council, which has already set out its own position. The outcome will decide how much money reaches industrial decarbonisation, defence, space and digital projects, and how much independence researchers keep. For companies planning investments in 2027 and beyond, the European Competitiveness Fund is the file to watch.
