EU single market embracing industrial policy: trade-offs and policy challenges towards a new model of governance
JRC Working Paper Series For a Fair, Innovative and Sustainable Economy, 17/2025
This paper examines the evolving role of the EU Single Market (SM) as it integrates industrial policy objectives, particularly green growth and strategic autonomy, into its traditionally rule-based framework. The SM, once a liberalisation mechanism focused on competition and market integration, now faces tensions between its foundational principles and new political imperatives. These include balancing internal openness with external strategic autonomy, aligning competition policy with ecosystem-based industrial strategies, and managing industrial coordination with limited EU fiscal capacity. The analysis presents three critical trade-offs and outlines four future scenarios shaped by fiscal strength and coordination levels. Ultimately, the paper argues that the EU is moving toward a governance model best described as "integrated orchestration": a hybrid of regulatory flexibility, conditionality, and multi-level coordination tailored to address systemic industrial challenges without full fiscal federalism.
RADOSEVIC Slavo;
2025-09-19
European Commission
JRC142696
https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC142696,
Additional supporting files
| File name | Description | File type | |
|---|
