Moving on to not fall behind? Technological sovereignty and the geo-dirigiste' turn in EU industrial policy

The fear of falling behind has been a driving force of European integration. Historically, Europe's response to the looming angst of declining competitiveness has been more market-creation, not market-direction. Recently, however, Europe has - in the name of safeguarding Europe's technological sovereignty - taken on a much more active role in directing economic activity towards sectors and technologies deemed geopolitically or geoeconomically important. In this paper, we attempt to explain this 'geo-dirigiste' turn. We reconstruct the evolution of EU industrial policy through the lens of Europe's fear of falling behind, drawing not only on primary (including archival) and secondary sources, but also on original interviews and deep transfer learning applied to an original dataset of 66.548 documents. Focusing on Europe's changing technological and geopolitical context, its coalitional underpinnings, and the role of ideational politics, we document and explain the historic shift away from market-creation and towards supranational market-direction in EU industrial policy.

Automated summary

The fear of falling behind has driven European integration, leading to a shift towards supranational market-direction in EU industrial policy. In order to safeguard Europe's technological sovereignty, Europe has taken on a more active role in directing economic activity towards important sectors and technologies. This paper reconstructs the evolution of EU industrial policy and explains the reasons for this 'geo-dirigiste' turn.