Regulation establishing European Competitiveness Fund including defence programme

The General Secretariat of the Council submitted the text to the Council (General Affairs) seeking a partial general approach on the Commission proposal to establish the European Competitiveness Fund (ECF).

• Main announcement: The draft Regulation establishes the European Competitiveness Fund (ECF) including a specific programme for defence research and innovation, sets a programme start date of 1 January 2028, and proposes an indicative financial envelope of EUR 234,300,000,000 for 2028–2034, with a detailed breakdown across four policy windows and cross-cutting instruments (see Article 4 for allocations and breakdown).
• Background and implementation details: The text links the ECF to existing EU instruments (Horizon Europe, InvestEU, Innovation Fund) and foresees the ECF InvestEU Instrument with a proposed maximum budgetary guarantee (EUR 70,000,000,000) and a 50% provisioning rate, creation of the ECF InvestEU Scaleup Facility, strengthened security/eligibility rules for space and defence activities, and the repeal/consolidation of several existing programmes; bracketed provisions were excluded from the partial general approach and all amounts remain subject to the MFF negotiations.