EU Strategic Autonomy Radar

The EU wants to reduce its economic vulnerability and susceptibility to blackmail. "In times of fundamental technological change, this primarily requires control over the supply chains of a number of critical future technologies," says cep economist André Wolf, who created the index-based measure

Based on the EU list of critical technologies, the Strategic Autonomy Radar measures the EU's degree of autonomy compared to third countries worldwide in eight critical technology areas. It divides strategic autonomy into two components: the reliability of existing supply channels and the ability to fall back on alternative supply channels in the event of disruptions. The results for the world's largest economies show a large regional difference. The three leading economies are located in East and Southeast Asia, with China in first place. This is primarily due to their low import dependency and focus on reliable suppliers.

Currently, the EU is only among the world's most autonomous regions in the field of "advanced engineering". Particular weaknesses exist in the areas of "advanced materials", "biotechnologies" and "energy technologies". This shows that high research productivity alone is not enough to ensure the security of supply chains. "The EU needs a strategic reboot of its technology policy," says Wolf. "The task of policymakers should be to create a level playing field between different solutions through government support. This requires a policy approach that does not focus solely on promoting individual technology areas." Instead, strengthening Europe as a technology location requires technology-neutral funding instruments, in particular to compensate for long-term regulatory investment risks.