The recent study requested by the ECON committee, „Strategic Autonomy and European Competitiveness,“ argues for a fundamental paradigm shift: economic performance must now become secondary to establishing resilience against geopolitical coercion. With the EU’s security environment deteriorating, the authors posit that strategic autonomy – specifically reducing reliance on the US for defense and China for critical raw materials – is the absolute prerequisite for regaining policy freedom. The study underscores a stark reality for Berlin and Brussels: NATO commitments are projected to rise to 3.5% of GDP, and European defense production must arguably increase fivefold to gain a decisive advantage over Russia. Critically, this marks a sobering admission that the „peace dividend“ era is definitively over, forcing the EU to prioritize „good enough“ resilient outcomes over purely efficient economic ones, a trade-off that will inevitably strain national budgets.
Operationally, the report offers a sharp critique of the bloc’s sluggish reform pace, noting that only 11% of the Draghi report’s recommendations have been adopted a year post-publication. It advocates for a pragmatic, tiered industrial policy that prioritizes centralized funding for „European public goods“ – such as energy grids and defense infrastructure – to overcome the inefficiency of market fragmentation. Furthermore, in a significant departure from traditional EU doctrine, the study urges a pivot away from stalled multilateralism toward aggressive bilateral trade deals to secure supply chains. However, this approach exposes a dangerous governance gap: the call for centralized EU funding and „sovereign“ projects clashes with the persistent lack of political will among Member States to cede fiscal control, potentially leaving these necessary strategic ambitions unfunded and unexecuted.
To read the full study, visit the European Parliament website.