Sitra’s statement on the European Innovation Act

The European Commission plans to adopt the European Innovation Act in 2026, as announced in the EU Startup and Scaleup Strategy and the Competitiveness Compass for the EU. 

The European Innovation Act will aim to create cross-sectoral legal framework conditions to remove barriers for bringing innovative ideas to market in all sectors. 

It will address issues related to the commercialisation of research results, collaboration between the industry and the academia, access to markets, finance, talent and infrastructures. It will also focus on creating more coordinated regulatory, policy and investment framework conditions aimed at bringing innovative solutions to the market across the EU. 

Sitra responded to the Commission’s consultation on the initiative.

Sitra’s main points

As recognised by the dossier, Europe’s innovation gap stems from fragmentation and lack of scale. At Sitra we have worked in the proposal of a Data Union Support Centre that can help tackle both: enforcing single market surges and fixing the shortage of quality data for start-ups and scale-ups. The seven AI Factories could play a role, but only if they open services to SMEs and data-sharing initiatives.

While chapter B’s actions are solid, there should be provisions to ensure that simplification is implementable. Regulatory technologies (RegTech) can be a useful tool to deal with the regulatory tsunami and regulatory fragmentation that enables cross-border friction.

In addition to this, the horizontal approach presented needs clear links to industry verticals, as seen in the AI strategy. Otherwise, it risks being hard to operationalise.

Lastly, mobilising private capital demands more than funding – there is a need to work towards a true Scale-up strategy. Without enforcement and better infrastructure, the single market strategy remains on paper, and the European Innovation Act will find it hard to take off.

Sitra issued its statement on the European Innovation Act on 3 October 2025.