On Wednesday (3 December), the European Commission unveiled its latest attempt to harden the bloc against an increasingly hostile geopolitical economy. The new economic security package – encompassing a strategy and the freshly minted ResourceEU initiative – does not create a new policy framework so much as tighten and intensify the EU’s existing approach. Brussels argues it is shifting from reacting to crises to averting them. The message: Europe must pay the price of becoming more resilient, or risk paying far more later.
The strategy zeroes in on six areas where officials fear the EU is dangerously exposed: strategic dependencies on key goods and services; insecure inward investment; vulnerabilities in defence, space and other critical sectors; lagging positions in critical technologies; weak protection of sensitive data; and creaking critical infrastructure. None of these themes is new; the shift lies in the Commission’s commitment to use its existing tools more systematically and assertively.
Trade, competition and industrial policy will now be deployed with a security reflex. Export controls on dual-use goods, foreign-subsidy investigations, and foreign-direct-investment (FDI) screening will be used more systematically. Access to the EU’s flagship funding programmes – Horizon Europe, Digital Europe, InvestEU, and the like– will increasingly hinge on alignment with security goals. Cybersecurity rules will tighten, and high-risk suppliers may be excluded from critical infrastructure, with an updated Cybersecurity Act due in January to formalise the process.
Sectoral structuring
ResourceEU is one of a series of sectoral initiatives intended to strengthen the EU’s own capacity and strategic capabilities in high-risk areas identified through the bloc’s economic-security risk assessments. Modelled loosely on Japan’s Organisation for Metals and Energy Security, it will coordinate efforts to diversify supplies of critical raw materials through a new European Critical Raw Materials Centre. Stéphane Séjourné, the EU’s industry commissioner, has also signalled the Commission is prepared to activate the anti-coercion instrument if China’s curbs on mineral exports continue to impede European production.
These measures sit alongside a broader set of initiatives aimed at reducing dependencies and strengthening resilience across sectors. Already adopted are the Data Union Strategy, Critical Raw Materials Act, EU start-up and scale-up strategy, and Quantum Strategy. Upcoming initiatives include the Chips Act 2.0 (expected March–April 2026), the Industrial Accelerator Act (to be unveiled 10 December 2025), the European Innovation Act (Q1 2026), and updated port and drone strategies (delayed to next year).
Risks and rewards for industry
Businesses reading the fine print will find both risks and opportunities. Manufacturers may face stricter cybersecurity demands under the Cyber Resilience Act, potential exclusion from critical-infrastructure procurement, and greater scrutiny of foreign partnerships and supply contracts. Requirements to diversify suppliers – and possibly to meet local-content rules of up to 70% for certain products under the forthcoming Industrial Accelerator Act – could raise costs.
Yet Brussels is also set to introduce new incentives. Chips Act 2.0 promises support for expanding local production. And firms that align with the EU’s security goals may receive preferential access to funding and procurement under the next long-term budget for 2028-2034.
