Ahead of the European Council on 15-16 October, I am writing on to express the concerns of
Eurochambres, the association of European chambers of commerce and industry representing 20
million businesses, regarding the Multiannual Financial Framework negotiating box published by the
Irish Presidency on 10 October.

The negotiating box proposes a reduction from €409 billion to €362 billion in the European
Competitiveness Fund (ECF), or 11.5%, which is significantly greater than the overall cut of 8%
compared to the Commission’s proposal. At a time of de-industrialisation and with Europe falling
further behind the US and China on innovation and technology, underinvesting in our
competitiveness is the opposite of what businesses need.

This disproportionate cut follows a clear pattern. The heading covering competitiveness, research
and defence is slashed by almost 13%, while agriculture and cohesion lose only 3%. Since the
Draghi and Letta reports of 2024, competitiveness has rightly been identified as an EU priority, yet
this proposal instead earmarks it as the first place to cut costs.

For businesses, these are not abstract numbers. The ECF is designed to support SMEs scaling up,
de-risk private investment in strategic technologies, and simplify access to EU funding. Because
much of this support works through guarantees and blended finance, each euro cut means an
exponential amount of private investment that will not be unlocked. Reducing the ECF in this context
is not budgetary prudence; it is a strategic mistake.

The ECF was conceived as Europe’s main tool for maintaining industry, innovation and quality jobs
on this continent; weakening it now means paying a far higher price later. I therefore call on you and
the member states to revise the negotiating box so that savings are shared proportionately across
priorities, and to preserve the ECF, including Horizon Europe, with an envelope of at least the €409
billion proposed by the Commission.