The EU Industrial Policy Report 2024, coordinated by the Luiss Hub for New Industrial Policy and Economic Governance (LUHNIP), addresses the pressing challenges facing the European Union in the wake of geopolitical shifts, economic transformations, and environmental imperatives.

The report aims to contribute to the current discussion on the future of EU Industrial Policy by providing analyses, as well as viewpoints from different authors, on various dimensions of its past, current and future evolution. To this end, the LUHNIP EU Industrial Policy Report 2024 brings together contributions from a truly interdisciplinary team comprising legal scholars, political scientists, political economists, economists, economic geographers, company managers and policy practitioners to reflect on some of the major issues concerning EU industrial policy.

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The report is structured around four thematic pillars essential to the future of EU industrial policy:

• Legal foundations and the accountability of EU industrial policy

• The governance of EU industrial policy and inter-institutional coordination

• Territorial inequalities and the spatial dimension of EU industrial policy

• Sectoral policies for strategic autonomy and the twin transition

The report contains thirteen thematic chapters, each tackling a specific aspect of industrial policy.

In Chapter 1, Dimitri Zurstrassen and Sanne van der Lugt provide a historical perspective on EU industrial policy, examining its successes and failures from the 1960s to 2019. The chapter highlights Europe’s struggle to remain competitive in high-tech sectors.

In Chapter 2, Paul Dermine and Maria Patrin explore the fragmented legal framework governing EU industrial policy, focusing on how adjacent policy fields like competition and state aid can support a more integrated industrial strategy.

In Chapter 3, Sebastian Diessner and Christy Ann Petit address the need for stronger democratic accountability in EU industrial policymaking, emphasizing the role of the European Parliament in overseeing industrial decisions.

In Chapter 4, Donato Di Carlo, Andreas Eisl, and Dimitri Zurstrassen examine the growing use of state aid within the EU and its impact on market fragmentation, focusing on the risks of subsidy races between Member States.

In Chapter 5, Daniel Mertens and Matthias Thiemann discuss the governance of financial resources for industrial policy, looking at the roles of the European Commission, the European Central Bank (ECB), and the European Investment Bank (EIB).

In Chapter 6, Dario Guarascio, Jelena Reljic, and Annamaria Simonazzi highlight the risk of growing economic divides between the EU’s core and periphery due to disparities in green and digital transition investments.

In Chapter 7, Vassilis Monastiriotis and Tea Gamtkitsulashvili emphasize the need to better integrate EU industrial policy with cohesion policy, focusing on the territorial dimension of industrial investments.

In Chapter 8, Filippo Bontadini, Valentina Meliciani, and Maria Savona explore the EU’s potential to build comparative advantages in green and digital sectors, examining the regional dynamics of technological innovation.

In Chapter 9, Niccolo Durazzi, Patrick Emmenegger, and Alina Felder address the critical issue of skills shortages and how they impact the EU’s ability to achieve the twin transition.

In Chapter 10, Maria Savona focuses on digital industrial policy, particularly the governance challenges posed by emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and data infrastructure.

In Chapter 11, Alexandre Marin examines the energy dimension of the twin transition, highlighting the EU’s structural vulnerabilities in energy policy and its dependence on external energy sources.

In Chapter 12, Samuel B. H. Faure explores the evolving landscape of EU defense industrial policy, stressing the need for a more autonomous and robust European defense sector.

In Chapter 13, Paolo Guerrieri and Pier Carlo Padoan conclude the report and synthesize the broader challenges facing Europe in terms of competitiveness and economic security, offering a strategic vision for revitalizing the Single Market and strengthening EU industrial leadership.

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