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Dunkirk embodies France's industrial revival: a strategic region where decarbonisation, reindustrialisation and public-private investment come together. This report by the Institut Montaigne identifies the conditions that have enabled this momentum and proposes 10 concrete recommendations to sustainably strengthen national and European industrial ambition.
The Chips Diplomacy Support Initiative (CHIPDIPLO) is an 18-month project led by the Institut Montaigne and co-funded by the European Commission. It aims to strengthen Europe's semiconductor strategy in the face of geopolitical tensions. Its objectives are to anticipate industrial risks, coordinate member states' policies and develop international partnerships. The consortium brings together experts, industrialists and researchers to analyze the challenges and provide recommendations to the EU. CHIPDIPLO supports the EU Chips Act and promotes Europe's attractiveness for innovation and investment.
Two years after the publication of the Draghi Report on European competitiveness, around 30% of its 567 recommendations have been implemented. While the European Union is broadly on schedule, most of the proposed reforms still remain to be carried out. Faced with persistent economic, technological, and energy-related challenges, Europe must accelerate and deepen its transformation efforts to safeguard its competitiveness, sovereignty, and prosperity in an increasingly competitive global environment.
At the heart of technological rivalry, semiconductors are bringing the EU and Taiwan closer together, forming a cornerstone of AI value chains. Cross-investments and interdependence are intensifying despite persistent obstacles. The study calls for stronger cooperation: improving the industrial environment, boosting R&D, investment, talent mobility, and advancing a European strategy to secure supply chains.
Europe’s semiconductor supply chains face rising geopolitical risks, from Chinese pressure to U.S. export threats and East Asian conflict scenarios. This policy paper argues Europe must choose between autonomy and indispensability. Full autonomy is unrealistic; pure dependence is dangerous. The authors conclude that Europe’s best path is “Allied Autonomy, European Indispensability”: securing strategic choke points, embedding them in trusted partnerships, and strengthening resilience through targeted policy actions.
Europe stands at a critical turning point in its clean-energy transition. Its dependence on Chinese-controlled value chains for batteries, solar, wind and other core technologies threatens long-term competitiveness and industrial sovereignty. This paper argues that market access should require strong local value chains through EU-majority joint ventures and tailored local content rules. It identifies gaps in the EU framework and presents concrete recommendations and a 2026–2035 roadmap to secure Europe’s technological autonomy.
Russian drone incursions and cyber attacks in 2025 threaten Europe. This note analyses the risk of Russian escalation, the impact of American disengagement, and possible responses from NATO and the EU to secure the Baltic states.
This essay revisits liberalism, between heritage and criticism, to defend its relevance today. Faced with democratic crises, it calls for a French-style renewal, reconciling liberty, equality, and fraternity in a spirit of responsibility and pluralism.
Amid US-China rivalry and Russia’s war, Europe’s semiconductor sector faces uncertainty beyond Wassenaar. CHIPDIPLO outlines four scenarios to 2029, guiding EU strategies for tech transfer and competitiveness.
The EU is aiming for carbon neutrality by 2050, but remains dependent on critical materials dominated by China. This note explores the geopolitical challenges and the levers for sustainable European industrial sovereignty.
A challenge for competitiveness and economic dynamism, both nationally and in Europe, discover our 2024 barometer of production taxes.
Digital infrastructures are crucial to French sovereignty and competitiveness, in the face of American and Chinese domination. Institut Montaigne proposes 9 strategic recommendations for structuring cloud, 5G and data processing, focusing on energy, talent and targeted funding.
The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022 will transform American industrial policy. In this paper, Georgina Wright analyzes the impact on Europe in terms of reindustrialization and competitiveness and lays out some possible evolutions of the IRA framework under the second Trump administration, and offers ideas for Europe.
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