European Commission - Speech [Check Against Delivery] Speech by Executive Vice-President Teresa Ribera at an event organised by BusinessEurope on Important Projects of Common European Interest Brussels, 12 October 2026 Many thanks and many thanks to BusinessEurope for bringing us together. Today's discussion goes to the heart of a choice Europe must make: how much of our industrial future are we prepared to shape our...
European Commission - Speech [Check Against Delivery] Speech by Executive Vice-President Teresa Ribera at an event organised by BusinessEurope on Important Projects of Common European Interest Brussels, 12 October 2026 Many thanks and many thanks to BusinessEurope for bringing us together. Today's discussion goes to the heart of a choice Europe must make: how much of our industrial future are we prepared to shape ourselves? We need to strengthen our economic security, reduce strategic dependencies and build the industrial capabilities that will allow us to prosper in the future. Why this matters? The ability to produce advanced semiconductors. To develop artificial intelligence. To secure critical materials. To supply clean energy and the technologies that use it. These capabilities determine who captures value, who sets standards, and who can withstand disruption or pressure. And the opposite is also true. When access to a critical technology or resource becomes uncertain, the consequences reach well beyond the company buying it. They affect entire industries and the choices available to governments. So let us take the adequate takeaway. We need to make sure we approach this exercise together, whether we come from the business community or hold institutional responsibilities in government. As has been rightly said, we are alone in this but we all are in this together, and we must remain united in our efforts. This requires investment. It requires clear priorities. And it requires us to organise our European strengths at European scale. We have highly innovative companies, outstanding researchers, skilled people and a single market of 450 million consumers. But those strengths do not automatically translate into industrial leadership if we are not able to put the pieces together. We have to connect them. We have to turn research into production, promising technologies into viable businesses, and national efforts into European capabilities. That is why Important Projects of Common European Interest (IPCEIs) matter: they give Europe a practical way to build together what we struggle to build separately. Consider the challenge facing a company developing a breakthrough technology. The upfront investment may be enormous. The technology may take years to mature. Its commercial success may depend on infrastructure that does not yet exist, suppliers that have not yet invested, or customers that cannot yet commit. Even an excellent project can stall when every participant is waiting for someone else to move first. And the benefits of making that first investment may extend far beyond the company taking the risk: new knowledge, new suppliers, new skills and opportunities for other businesses. A real common public interest, for all of us. That is the case for public action. And when those challenges cross borders, it is the case for coordinated action at European scale. IPCEIs allow Member States, companies, researchers to move together: coordinating investments, sharing risks and building the connections that a new industrial ecosystem needs. Their purpose is to make investments possible that Europe needs, but that would otherwise fail to happen at the necessary scale or speed. We should remain open to trade, investment and cooperation. Europe benefits enormously from that openness. But openness is stronger when it rests on a clear understanding of our own capabilities and the capacity to build credible alternatives, within a level playing field. The ability to choose requires the capacity to build. And European coordination matters just as much as industrial ambition. A collection of disconnected national subsidy programmes risks fragmenting our Single Market. This is why IPCEIs matter: they connect national investments around a common European objective, fostering collaboration and ensuring that the benefits extend beyond the direct recipients of aid. Our State aid rules make that distinction meaningful: public support must address a real investment gap, remain proportionate and generate wider benefits. Public money should unlock ambition and additional investment. It should give new technologies and new participants a chance to succeed. Take hydrogen, for example. An industrial company cannot make the switch to hydrogen on its own. It needs the right infrastructure, reliable supply and investment across the value chain. This is precisely where coordinated European action can make a difference. Through the Hydrogen IPCEIs, participating Member States and companies are working towards the infrastructure needed to connect hydrogen production with industrial use. Other European companies projects are developing hydrogen propulsion technologies for maritime applications. These projects tackle the difficult stage between a technological possibility and an industrial reality. IPCEIs help bring those investments together. We are working with Member States and stakeholders on two major new initiatives: advanced semiconductor technologies and artificial intelligence. These are technologies that will shape productivity and competitiveness across much of the economy. The next generation of IPCEIs reflecting the next generation of strategic challenges for Europe. European companies need the capacity to develop artificial intelligence, adapt it to their industrial needs and compete with it at scale. Europe should capture value from the technologies transforming its economy. That means strengthening the capabilities and infrastructure on which innovation depends, while accelerating applications in sectors such as manufacturing and automotive. Advanced semiconductors are equally important. They underpin the digital systems and industrial technologies on which our future competitiveness will depend. We are also supporting work on seven further potential IPCEIs, including advanced materials, compute infrastructure, biotechnology and critical raw materials. And we are exploring the potential for an IPCEI on quantum technologies. And that brings me to your message. BusinessEurope has brought together the experience of more than fifty companies, from SMEs to large corporations. You are asking for more clarity, greater predictability, less bureaucracy, faster decisions and more flexibility. These concerns go to the heart of whether the instrument can deliver. A company cannot plan an industrial investment around an uncertain timetable. A promising technology can lose its opportunity while decisions are still pending. We are fully aware and have taken steps. We are willing to step them up. If Europe identifies a capability as strategically important, our procedures must reflect that urgency. The Joint European Forum for IPCEI helps Member States share the experience and identify opportunities together. The IPCEI Design Support Hub provides Commission support to Member States earlier in project development and accelerates the approval process. We have made participation easier for associated partners, improved connections with other EU funding instruments, and developed guidance, templates and best practices. But we must go further. We need clearer expectations from the outset, stronger coordination between European and national procedures, and fewer avoidable delays. We need a process that companies, especially, innovative SMEs, can realistically navigate. And we have proposed stronger links with the wider European investment framework, including the proposed European Competitiveness Fund, the National Regional Partnership Plans and Horizon Europe, so that we can maximise the impact of our collective investment. The aim is to give a promising technology a credible route from research to first industrial deployment and onward to commercial scale. And while State aid alone cannot secure lasting industrial leadership, IPCEIs must be part of a coherent European industrial strategy, with each instrument helping the others deliver. **** Allow me to end with a very relevant final remark. The strongest argument for IPCEIs is already visible in the connections they create. In the 11 integrated IPCEI projects approved by the Commission so far, we have brought together 332 projects, 257 companies, and 23 Member States, plus Norway. We are speaking about 38 billion euros in public funding. More than one in five participating companies are SMEs. Their share has grown from 7% in the first IPCEI in 2018 to 60% in the IPCEIs approved in 2025. That matters. Europe's next breakthrough may come from a small, unknown, company that needs access to a much larger industrial network. IPCEIs are turning European research into industrial projects, connecting companies across borders and building capabilities that strengthen our economy. They show that Europe can take on investments whose scale and risks would be too great for any one company or country and they create opportunities well beyond the projects receiving support. Our task now is to maximise those results: build on the partnerships already established, bring more innovations into industrial use, and ensure that the knowledge and opportunities they generate reach businesses across Europe. That requires continuity and confidence. We need invest to harvest. Member States must honour their commitments, including delivering the funding they have pledged, so that companies can invest with certainty and interconnected projects can advance together. Each national commitment supports a wider European undertaking. Faster procedures, simpler way to participate and reliable delivery will help these projects realise their full potential. We have demonstrated what European cooperation can achieve. By following through together, we can turn those achievements into lasting industrial strength. Many thanks. SPEECH/26/2144 <@rel_link@>
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