Industry & Civil Society Groups Call for a New European investment Plan

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Today’s challenges demand a new European investment plan.

Dear President von der Leyen,

Dear President Costa,

Europe faces a historic moment. The scale of the economic, geopolitical, climate and technological challenges before us cannot be met with incremental adjustments or national solutions alone. They require European-level fiscal and financial capacity commensurate with the task. Europe’s central weakness is chronic underinvestment and low demand. Sales of cars, steel and chemicals are all significantly below 2019 levels putting huge pressure on EU manufacturing and jobs. Draghi identified an annual investment gap of €800 billion, with roughly one third requiring public financing.

The end of Next Generation EU means a sharp productive investment cliff edge is approaching precisely when Europe must accelerate decarbonisation, strengthen defence capabilities, secure critical raw materials, modernise industry and guarantee affordable energy and quality public services. Industrial sovereignty requires the ability to invest collectively. It requires supporting our industries, broadly defined across manufacturing, services, infrastructure and the care economy, so that productive capacity, quality jobs and innovation remain anchored in Europe. This cannot be achieved under fiscal constraints designed for a different era. Nor can it just be achieved by simplification.

We are not an island. The United States and China are sustaining annual public deficits close to twice the EU average while deploying large-scale public investment in industrial policy, energy security, defence, digitalisation and strategic supply chains. They combine public procurement, tax incentives, production aid, long-term financing tools and coordinated planning to shape investment decisions across entire value chains.

Europe has a choice: if we meet today’s structural pressures with short-term fixes and wishful thinking about leverage alone, they will harden into lasting competitive decline. Europe has shown through the Next Generation EU that common financing works. Sustained, large-scale public investment backed by common financing is what enables economies to modernise, boost demand, crowd in private capital and strengthen long-term prosperity.

We therefore call for the establishment of a European Investment Facility, alongside the reform of fiscal rules to enable sustained public investment, with guarantees to ensure that public support directly strengthens productive capacity, innovation and quality employment in Europe.

Yours sincerely,

Manon Dufour (Executive Director, E3G ASBL — Third Generation Environmentalism)

Marco Mensink (Director General, Cefic)

Victor van Hoorn (Director at Cleantech for Europe)

William Todts (Executive Director, T&E)

Letter courtesy of T&E.