Strengthening the EU's Global Position For Economic and Strategic Autonomy

The Policy Report is part of the Policy Lab course, offered by the Utrecht University. This interdisciplinary course is part of the Master's in Economic Policy and Strategy, Competition and Regulation at Utrecht University. In this project, students work in teams to develop applied policy proposals addressing real-world economic and strategic challenges. This year's theme: "Strengthening the EU's Global Position for Economic and Strategic Autonomy." European strategic autonomy has shifted from slogan to policy. Russia's assault on Ukraine, the sharpening contest between the United States and China, and the supply chain shocks of recent years have forced the European Union to re-examine whether it can protect its interests and values while staying an open, rules-based economy (Engberg, 2021). The forthcoming Draghi report on competitiveness, the Commission's draft Rebuild and Accelerate Resilience Mechanism, and the pledge by the next College of Commissioners to revitalise the Single Market all point in the same direction: autonomy now concerns industrial technology, energy security and social cohesion as much as defence. Three structural trends explain why the debate has become so urgent. First, multilateral institutions are struggling to contain great power rivalry, which leaves the Union with a larger share of responsibility for its own stability and prosperity (European Commission, 2016). Second, control over data, advanced chips, and clean energy supply chains has become a source of geopolitical leverage, putting technological capability at the heart of economic security (Béraud Sudreau, 2020). Third, uneven fiscal space and demographic pressures across Member States complicate collective action yet also raise the premium on pooled resources and coordinated policy (European Defence Agency 2023). These developments raise difficult questions: how to turn ambitious targets into results, how to cut risky dependencies without closing markets, and how to fund new initiatives without widening economic gaps. The four clusters collected in this booklet, Economic Sovereignty, Defence, Energy and Resources, approach these questions from complementary angles. The Economic Sovereignty essays link the euro's international role, a permanent fiscal capacity and a stronger semiconductor base, showing that monetary and industrial measures must reinforce one another. The Defence papers insist that civil-military readiness is essential for credible deterrence, which in turn supports the wider autonomy agenda. The energy analyses argue that climate objectives and supply security are mutually reinforcing as long as infrastructure and demand management are treated together, an insight echoed in REPowerEU (European Commission 2022). Finally, the Resources papers examine labour, critical minerals and advanced chips, concluding that realistic migration policy, circular economy tools and coherent industrial governance are all part of the same autonomy puzzle. Read together, the briefs suggest that autonomy is not a single instrument but a portfolio of linked measures that must be sequenced coherently and financed reliably. The collection points to four cross-cutting messages. Ambition must be matched by implementation capacity; permanent fiscal tools and simpler procedures are prerequisites for credibility. Autonomy instruments need to stay open and rules-based; clear standards for interoperability, data sharing, and investment screening can reduce vulnerabilities without closing markets. Citizens must be part of the conversation; without public support, higher defence budgets or faster energy transitions will stall. Finally, decisions on currency policy, defence capability, energy security and resource strategy interact and therefore have to be coordinated; fragmented action risks inconsistency and higher cost. A strategic autonomy agenda will succeed only if economic, security and social goals advance in parallel, backed by stable finance and clear lines of accountability.