Nine recommendations for the European Competitiveness Fund and Horizon Europe
On 2 December 2025, Zero Emissions Platform (ZEP) joined 27 other organisations to write a letter to Members of the European Parliament, the Council and the Danish Presidency. The joint letter outlines nine recommendations to strengthen the European Competitiveness Fund (ECF) and Horizon Europe.
This Friday, the Council and Permanent Representatives of Member States will meet to discuss the next EU long-term budget (MFF) and a new European Competitiveness Fund. A group of 28 think tanks, research institutions, civil society organisations and cleantech associations have sent a joint letter to Members of the European Parliament, the Council and the Danish Presidency with nine recommendations to strengthen the ECF and Horizon Europe.
The signatories underline that Europe’s “Independence Moment” requires a long-term EU budget that delivers sufficient, predictable and well-structured funding to boost clean industrial competitiveness, technological autonomy, climate leadership and security.
The signatories call for a more integrated financial toolbox to support European innovation and make the lab-to-scale investment journey of clean technologies competitive in Europe. This toolbox should also promote the additionality of European investments and a just transition, in part by delivering affordable EU finance for citizens and smaller businesses, which would also help boost the demand for European cleantech.
They stress that this requires an impactful and targeted ECF that improves EU financial instruments for scale-up and deployment, coordinated with a strong and right-sized Horizon Europe that re-establishes the EU as the home of cleantech innovation.
The joint letter outlines nine recommendations to deliver predictable support and tackle the most strategic innovation and investment gaps in cleantech manufacturing, scale-up and deployment:
Recommendations on the European Competitiveness Fund
- Offer a predictable lab-to-scale journey for cleantech innovators with a binding budget for the Clean Transition window that targets strategic investment gaps in Europe’s funding landscape.
- Make ECF financial instruments fit for purpose: a €50 billion ECF InvestEU, a €10 billion Cleantech Guarantee Facility, and strong incentives for national contributions.
- Support lead markets for European cleantech with clean public procurement and affordable retail EU financial instruments for end-consumers.
- Maximise the impact of ECF funds with stronger “efficiency-first”, additionality, conditions for a just transition, and EU preference criteria across cleantech value chains.
Recommendations on Horizon Europe
- Set a binding budget for Horizon Europe of €200 billion, supported by a 45% climate and
environment mainstreaming target. - Keep an independent and ring-fenced budget for collaborative research under Pillar II, with at least 50% more for the Clean Transition and Industrial Decarbonisation envelope.
- Tackle oversubscription with a programmed approach.
Recommendations on Governance:
- Expert-led governance mechanisms in the ECF should guide Work Programmes based on
evidence and science, in coordination with the forthcoming Competitiveness Coordination Tool
(CCT). - Integrate ex-ante criteria to ensure that ECF Work Programmes prioritise strategic clean technologies and tackle the most prominent climate investment gaps
These nine recommendations are essential to support Europe’s Independence Moment with an impactful, innovation-driven MFF. In the upcoming institutional positioning, both Parliament and Council can turn the EU’s clean industrial ambition into lasting competitiveness, and make 2028–2034 the moment where Europe re-enters the clean technology race.