Titolo completo

Sustainable Transitions and Competitiveness: Policy Directions for the European Union and Italy

Europe’s sustainable transitions have entered a new phase in which environmental ambition, industrial competitiveness and economic security can no longer be treated as separate policy agendas. This policy paper argues that the success of the digital, energy and industrial transitions will depend on Europe’s capacity to combine innovation, regulatory predictability, effective implementation and investment mobilisation, and multi-level governance. Drawing on EU strategic documents, interviews and a comparative analysis of the cases of Italy, Greece, Romania and Sweden, it examines three sectors in transition: automotive, energy and tobacco. The automotive sector shows the tension between decarbonisation targets, supply-chain resilience and affordability. The energy sector shows how the transition has moved from a climate-policy issue to a security and competitiveness issue. The tobacco sector is analysed as a case of endogenous industrial transition driven by technological innovation, differentiated regulation and supply-chain upgrading. The policy paper concludes that Europe needs a pragmatic transition paradigm able to align sustainability, competitiveness and industrial capacity.