An enterprising Europe

In just two years, the European Union has made a major shift. While Europe had been built around the single market and competition, the Covid-19 pandemic and the disruption of value chains in the wake of the crisis have given new lustre to industrial policies. At the same time, a major leap forward was made on the fiscal front, with the joint Next Generation EU recovery plan. Finally, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has made Europeans aware of the challenges of energy sovereignty. The industrial, energy, climate and security challenges are piling up at a time when the Member States have considerably increased their debts during the health crisis. For its part, the ECB is facing a sudden resurgence of inflation. We will cross-reference industrial, macroeconomic and strategic perspectives on the new balance between the different European public policy instruments. In particular, we will look at how to combine competition and industrial policy, how to coordinate energy policies, how to normalise fiscal and monetary policies without stifling recovery, how to accept the economic cost of the war in Ukraine and the ecological transition, and how to strengthen skills in order to recover technological and industrial independence.