Cohesion policy as an instrument for realising European technological sovereignty

In other words, Member States fear losing control over strategic assets, while Europe as a whole needs unified governance to build a shared technological and industrial autonomy. In this precarious balance, European cohesion policy is an important tool to mitigate polarisation dynamics and ensure that technological sovereignty becomes a truly shared project, both strategically and operationally.

There is therefore no necessary opposition between cohesion policy and technological sovereignty. The former finds new legitimacy in supporting the latter at a time when, due to the changed international scenario, the EU's priorities are rapidly changing. At the same time, European technological sovereignty becomes an achievable goal only if each territory is put in a position to contribute to it through a targeted division of labour that favours widespread competitiveness and balanced development.

Since its inception, cohesion policy has been designed to rebalance the potentially divergent effects of the creation of the European single market. Today more than ever, this role is crucial. Without cohesion, European technological sovereignty runs the risk of becoming a narrow initiative that can only be realised through the capacities of a few leading regions, excluding large areas of the Union from the innovation and development process. Instead, each region, even if among the currently less developed ones, can contribute to realising a piece of this shared sovereignty: be it the production of essential components for new technologies, applied research, advanced skills training or the development of sustainable energy solutions.

Orchestrating an intelligent division of labour between European territories is not only possible, but necessary. A technological sovereignty built on a broad territorial basis is more robust, less exposed to the risks of dependence on individual production clusters, and capable of generating widespread innovation, sustaining Europe's competitiveness in the long run.

However, in order to ensure the success of this strategy, it is necessary to recognise that cohesion policy can no longer be regarded primarily as a compensation or rebalancing policy, but must be integrated organically with the objectives of technological sovereignty.

In this perspective, the recent introduction of the STEP (Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform) represents both a challenge and an opportunity for cohesion policy. While on the one hand the risk is to drain resources from cohesion funds to finance vertical initiatives, on the other hand it opens up the possibility to integrate regional development policies more closely with European strategic technology objectives. In order for STEP not to become a mere tool to strengthen those who are already strong, it is crucial that the criteria for resource allocation take into account the need to also strengthen those territories that are lagging behind, promoting true convergence.

This is not an easy undertaking, and unfortunately the current scenario does not allow for delays; on the contrary, effective and rapid responses are needed. So let us start from the basics, for example, by avoiding the need for each individual region to independently create data collections and analysis platforms that are essential for identifying regional sectors with high potential that can contribute to the growth of strategic industries and technologies. This would still be a good start.