on the future of the Missions and the mission-oriented approach

ERRIN and its members call on the Commission to safeguard the EU Missions and mission-oriented approach in the next MFF

More than 35 regional and local authorities urge EU decision-makers to keep the EU Missions running until at least 2030 and to keep the mission-oriented approach at the heart of Europe's future research and innovation framework. 

The letter comes at a particularly important moment: the Commission published its mid-term assessment of the EU Missions in September, and the findings will help shape the debate on their future. At the same time, as negotiations on the next Framework Programme (FP10), the European Competitiveness Fund (ECF) and the National and Regional Partnership Plans (NRPPs) enter a decisive phase, ERRIN has sent a letter to five members of the European Commission. It is addressed to Executive Vice-Presidents Teresa Ribera, Stéphane Séjourné and Raffaele Fitto, and Commissioners Wopke Hoekstra and Ekaterina Zaharieva. It is supported by more than 35 regional and local authorities across Europe. 

The letter underlines the strategic importance of preserving and strengthening the EU Missions and the mission-oriented approach as central pillars of Europe's competitiveness, resilience and innovation agenda. 

The five EU Missions are only halfway through their planned lifetime, yet regions and cities say they have already shown what they can do. They have accelerated innovation, mobilised public and private investment and turned European priorities into concrete action in Europe's territories. By bringing together research and innovation, governance, regulation and citizen engagement around shared objectives, they have introduced a new way of designing and delivering European policy. 

The letter points in particular to the Mission Cities and the Mission Adaptation to Climate Change. Over the past five years, regional and local authorities have used it as a common framework for climate mitigation and resilience, working with research organisations, businesses and civil society. Beyond funding individual projects, it has helped regions and cities strengthen institutional capacity and multi-level governance. It has also supported the development of climate risk assessments, adaptation pathways and long-term investment strategies that will keep generating value beyond the lifetime of individual projects. 

An unfinished experiment 

The signatories stress that the EU Missions were designed as experimental policy instruments, built to test new ways of combining research and innovation with regulation, governance, finance and societal engagement. Redesigning or ending them before their planned completion would risk losing the momentum, partnerships, governance structures and investment pipelines built over the last years. 

Regional and local authorities have invested significant political, administrative and financial resources in aligning strategies and mobilising stakeholders. They now need long-term policy certainty to realise the benefits of that investment. 

What regions are asking for 

Local and regional leaders encourage the European Commission, the European Parliament and the Council to: 

  • Continue the five EU Missions until at least 2030, as originally foreseen, allowing sufficient time to deliver their objectives, assess their full impact and propose pathways for their continuation 
  • Maintain and strengthen the mission-oriented approach as a strategic component of the future MFF and European research and innovation framework 
  • Ensure strong synergies between FP10, the ECF and the NRPPs, providing coherent pathways from innovation to deployment and territorial implementation 
  • Continue recognising regional and local authorities as strategic partners in the governance, implementation and scaling of the EU Missions 

As Pirita Lindholm, ERRIN Director, writes in the letter, ERRIN and its member regions remain fully committed to supporting the European institutions in strengthening the EU Missions, and look forward to continuing the dialogue in the months ahead. 

Read the full letter attached.