The legal framework of industrial policy under the EU Treaties is disunited. The EU’s competence in the industrial field is of a mere supportive, complementary nature and several primary law principles fundamentally inhibit the pursuit of activist industrial policies in Europe. However, this weak competence is supplemented by a number of resources and legal bases which formally belong to distinct, neighbouring policy fields (such as state aid and competition policy, the EU budget, cohesion policy or economic governance), but can be mobilized to support supranational initiatives and bring about an autonomous EU industrial policy. In our view, this fragmented legal framework creates issues of consistency and coordination, which undermine the overall efficiency and legitimacy of EU industrial policy. Furthermore, in the absence of dedicated EU competence, mobilised second-order policies only partially fulfill their aim and do not allow for the pursuit of an integrated EU industrial policy agenda. On the basis of the analysis undertaken in this working paper we present four main recommendations to strengthen the legal premises of a supranational EU industrial policy, combining policy-related and funding-related aspects.

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