Council agrees on position on European Competitiveness Fund (ECF)
On 16 June 2026, the Council of the European Union agreed on its partial negotiating position on the regulation establishing the new European Competitiveness Fund (ECF). The ECF is planned as a central pillar of the next Multiannual Financial Framework for 2028-2034 and aims to strengthen Europe’s competitiveness, innovation capacity and strategic autonomy.
The proposed fund is intended to simplify EU funding by bringing together several existing instruments under a single framework. According to the Council, it should help address the EU’s innovation gap with major global competitors, reduce dependencies and support strategic technologies and industries.
The ECF will focus on four policy areas:
- clean transition and industrial decarbonisation;
- health, biotech, agriculture and bioeconomy;
- digital leadership; and
- resilience and security, defence industry and space.
For the European Partnership community, the Council position is particularly relevant because it further clarifies the possible role of partnerships in the future ECF. The text underlines that cooperation between the public and private sectors can contribute to European competitiveness and help leverage private investment. It therefore foresees that parts of the ECF may be implemented through public-private or public-public partnerships, where this is the most effective way to achieve the fund’s objectives.
The Council position also points to a close link between the ECF and the future Horizon Europe framework programme FP10. The ECF work programmes are expected to include collaborative research and innovation actions in a dedicated part and may also include contributions to European Partnerships established under FP10, where this is necessary to achieve ECF objectives. This highlights the potential role of European Partnerships as instruments connecting research and innovation activities with industrial deployment, market uptake and strategic European priorities.
The Council’s position is partial, as financial and horizontal issues are still being discussed in the broader MFF negotiations. It now forms the Council’s mandate for negotiations with the European Parliament. The final budget and detailed rules for the ECF will depend on the overall agreement on the 2028-2034 MFF.
Regulation establishing the European Competitiveness Fund - partial general approach