Strategic autonomy, competitiveness and supply chain resilience in the EU

In June 2025, EU Member States that are members of NATO committed to a significant increase in spending on defence to 5% of GDP to be reached withing a decade. 3.5% of GDP would be spent on core defence items, 1.5% on defence-related items. Obviously, such commitments come on top of already tight public finances in most of the economies concerned. Against this background, in autumn 2025, the ECON Committee requested external expertise to better understand the potential synergies and tensions between security-oriented measures and competitiveness objectives, with a view to fostering effective policy scrutiny in light of the European Parliament's economic oversight responsibilities. The experts were asked to examine the economic implications of reducing dependencies in critical supply chains—including raw materials, energy, semiconductors, and defence—identifying where security-motivated investments can simultaneously enhance innovation and productivity. They were further tasked with evaluating policy frameworks to maximise positive spillovers between resilience-building and competitiveness, assessing innovative approaches to industrial policy, and providing concrete recommendations for policy design that leverages synergies whilst offering pragmatic solutions for managing unavoidable tensions. Three papers have been received: one by Maria DEMERTZIS, Alejandro FIORITO and Konstantinos PANITSAS for The Conference Board Europe and European University Institute, one by Erik JONES and Richard YOUNGS for Carnegie Europe and the Robert Schuman Centre, and one by Stefan THURNER and Peter KLIMEK for the Complexity Science Hub and Supply Chain Intelligence Institute Austria (for a comparative overview and links to the papers see the table at the end of this briefing). This briefing offers an overview of all three papers with key takeaways.