The Atlantic Council’s Europe Center is pleased to host a virtual conversation on “How to build an EU competitiveness agenda?” This conversation will take place on Thursday, May 16 from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. ET.

Amidst shifts in the global economy and intensifying competition from the United States and China, the European Union’s (EU) economic and regulatory policies are coming up against a new reality in Brussels: an increased focus on Europe’s long-term economic competitiveness. In response, the European Union is looking into ways it can become more agile. The EU has commissioned two reports on the future of the EU’s single market and the future of European competitiveness, and ideas for reducing regulatory burdens have been floated. Confronted with the urgency of the green and digital transitions and the need to boost Europe’s competitiveness, Europe is also wrestling with competing approaches between free trade, industrial policy, and economic security. Concern in Europe extends to this side of the Atlantic as well. Implications of the US Inflation Reduction Act and greater government subsidies in industrial policy have caused a rethink of how the EU—as a historically open-market and free trade bloc that regulates the use of state subsidies—should adapt to new geopolitical and economic realities.