Draghi’s Report on European Competitiveness Highlights Fusion as a Disruptive Technology
On September 9, former Italian Prime Minister and ex-President of the European Central Bank (ECB), Mario Draghi, released the much-anticipated report on the future of European competitiveness. Tasked by the European Commission to draft this report, Draghi provides concrete recommendations to address the EU’s declining growth and boost its global competitiveness. The report fits into Von der Leyen’s broader agenda to modernize the EU economy, promote strategic autonomy, and enhance its industrial resilience against global pressures.
In his nearly 400-page report, Draghi warns that failing to properly finance digital innovation, decarbonisation, and defence will result in a “slow agony” against the US and China.
The report focuses on several key areas to boost the EU’s competitiveness in the global market. It covers sectoral policies in energy, energy-intensive industries, raw materials, the automotive sector, digital technologies, transport, defense, and proposes comprehensive strategies for each.
On energy, the report identifies the following root causes of the EU’s competitiveness, including high energy prices, energy price volatility, fossil fuel dependency, increased carbon costs, energy infrastructure bottlenecks, as well as slow permitting processes. Among the proposals, the report highlights the need to foster innovation in the energy sector and accelerate the development of ‘new nuclear’.
On fusion, the report specifically calls to “develop an overarching EU innovation strategy for fusion energy and support the creation of a public-private partnership to promote its rapid, economically viable commercialisation. The partnership should aim to create a stable and predictable ecosystem for industrial innovation, leveraging the ITER project, while ensuring a clear technology development roadmap. The deployment of fusion energy will require public and private investment to act in synergy.”
While this report is highly encouraging for our sector, the Fusion Industry Association counts on the new Commission to rapidly act and focus its efforts on implementing these recommendations, critical to enable the successful development of fusion commercialization in Europe.
September 10th, 2024
