Navigating supply chain disruptions: Supporting the resilience and transformation of EU firms

Over the past three decades, Europe has become deeply integrated into world trade and global production networks. Driven by the ICT revolution and trade liberalisation, production processes have gradually become more global, with different parts of the value chain widespread in different locations, thereby reducing costs, increasing efficiency and raising the welfare of European citizens.

But more recently, various crises – including the COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine and geopolitical tensions – have brought new challenges and shown that fragile and concentrated supply chains can expose firms and countries to high risks and dependencies. Disruptions in logistics and access to raw materials, semiconductors and other inputs have become major obstacles for EU firms.

As the effects of trade disruptions can propagate rapidly and compound along global production networks, EU firms have decided to redesign and derisk their supply chains. They have demonstrated remarkable agility, for example by investing in digital inventory and input tracking, increasing stocks and diversifying the countries they import from. However, in a context of rising geopolitical uncertainty, more coordinated efforts across the EU will be needed to reduce strategic dependencies, increase resilience and build on the strength of the single market. 

This is the conclusion from the report 'Navigating supply chain disruptions: Supporting the resilience and transformation of EU firms', which results from a collaboration between the Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs and the European Investment Bank. This report will be presented and discussed during the workshop.