The leaders of the European Union have adopted a new competitiveness deal with the aim of “ensuring Europe’s common economic prosperity, boosting the continent’s competitiveness, making the EU the first climate-neutral continent in the world, and ensuring the EU’s sovereignty, security, resilience and global influence.”
The so-called Budapest Declaration on the New European Competitiveness Deal was adopted in Budapest on Friday, November 8th under the auspices of the Hungarian EU presidency.
The deal was a response to a damning report by the former chief of the European Central Bank Mario Draghi about the EU’s lagging economic competitiveness.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has warned that Europe is gradually being left behind by the United States and China, and has made competitiveness one of the focal points of the six-month Hungarian presidency.
The Budapest Declaration sets out specific aims to boost competitiveness, including the deepening of the EU’s Single Market, the establishment of a Savings and Investments Union by 2026, the development of a comprehensive industrial strategy for competitive industries, drastically reducing administrative and regulatory burdens, strengthening the EU’s technological capabilities, spending more on research and development, and pursuing strategic energy sovereignty and climate neutrality by 2050.
At a press conference on Friday afternoon, Viktor Orbán said that with the Budapest Declaration, urgent measures are being taken to bring down energy prices, and the aim is for Europe to spend 3% of GDP on research and development by 2030. The prime minister stressed that despite ongoing differences between member states on issues such as the war in Ukraine, competitiveness is one area where all of them “want to make Europe great again.”
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Mario Draghi’s report had increased a sense of urgency, and that the Commission would put together a competitiveness, decarbonisation, and digitalisation plan to move Europe forward.
EU Council President Charles Michel said that it has become clear that the challenges facing the world will not fade away, and therefore it is important to strengthen European integration and avoid fragmentation.
With regards to defence and security, he emphasised that European sovereignty and strategic autonomy must be strengthened, and that while NATO is a fundamental pillar of European security, we also need more European cooperation, and further industrial development.
The informal EU summit, which was preceded by the European Political Community (EPC) summit on Thursday, was dominated by talk of the return of Donald Trump to the White House. EU member states are aware that the Republican president will favour a more isolationist, non-interventionist foreign policy, and an “America first” trade strategy—meaning he could impose tariffs on EU imports, and Europe would have to rely much more on its own defence.
Viktor Orbán said that there will be tough negotiations with the United States, and Trump will certainly defend American interests but in the end, a good trade agreement must be reached.
