A Declaration · Sofia · 2026
Adopted following the discussion between Enrico Letta and one hundred business leaders from Central and Eastern Europe, in Sofia.
The Declaration
The world is reorganising around scale, technology, security, industrial power and strategic resilience. To remain prosperous, democratic and globally relevant, the European Union must complete its economic integration while ensuring that no region is left behind.
The Sofia Dialogue recognises the historic contribution of Central and Eastern Europe to Europe's growth, industrial transformation, energy security and geopolitical stability. The next phase of European competitiveness must fully integrate the ambitions, capacities and concerns of CEE into the core of Europe's future strategy.
"We launch the Sofia Initiative — a call for a stronger and complete Single Market, a more innovative economy, and a Europe that competes globally while converging internally."
Ten Points
Ten commitments shaping a Union that is much more than a market — a home, a community of destiny, and a global force for democratic prosperity.
Europe cannot compete globally with fragmented capital, energy, telecom, digital and services markets. We support the completion of the Single Market as the Union's greatest engine of growth. But integration must also mean fairness. The remaining barriers disproportionately affect businesses in Central and Eastern Europe. Cross-border access and administrative simplification must become a strategic priority for SMEs and fast-growing companies across the region.
Europe's savings must finance Europe's future. Too much capital leaves the continent while innovative companies struggle to scale up. We call for a true European Capital and Savings Union that mobilises investment into strategic sectors and ensures stronger access to financing for emerging innovation ecosystems. Europe needs not only financial centres — it needs innovation corridors stretching from Lisbon to Sofia, from Tallinn to Bucharest.
Infrastructure is competitiveness. The next phase of European integration must focus on transport, energy, digital and logistics connectivity between East and West, North and South. Strategic investments in rail, ports, highways, electricity grids, AI infrastructure and high-speed digital networks must prioritise Europe's internal cohesion and reduce the developmental asymmetries that still fragment our Union.
The industrial transition must not create new economic peripheries. Central and Eastern Europe already provides critical manufacturing strength in automotive, electronics, defence, energy and technology supply chains. Europe should establish an industrial strategy that rewards production, innovation and value creation across all member states. Strategic autonomy requires geographically diversified industrial capacity within Europe.
No European competitiveness agenda can succeed with structurally higher energy costs than those faced by our global competitors. We support a European Energy Union that accelerates interconnectivity, diversification, storage, nuclear innovation where nationally chosen, renewables expansion and regional resilience. Central and Eastern Europe's energy security and affordability must become among the key European priorities as part of the common good.
Europe has talent, research and entrepreneurs — but too often loses them at the scale-up stage. We support a European framework for innovation acceleration focused on artificial intelligence, quantum technologies, biotechnology, cybersecurity, advanced manufacturing and clean technologies. We call for the full activation of the EU's Fifth Freedom — the free movement of knowledge, research and innovation — and support the development of an EU 28th Regime: an optional, harmonised framework that allows innovative companies to operate under common EU rules.
European businesses increasingly face excessive complexity, duplication and compliance burdens that undermine growth and innovation. We call for a simplification agenda that substantially reduces administrative costs for all businesses and especially for the SMEs.
Europe's demographic challenge is becoming an economic challenge. Talent shortages, brain drain and workforce decline affect many Central and Eastern European countries acutely. Europe must invest massively in education, vocational excellence, research mobility, digital skills and talent retention. The free movement of people should become a mechanism for shared prosperity, not permanent regional depletion.
Competitiveness and security can no longer be separated. A stronger European defence industry, resilient supply chains, cybersecurity capabilities and critical infrastructure protection are essential to Europe's economic future. Central and Eastern Europe's experience and strategic awareness must help shape the Union's long-term resilience agenda.
Europe succeeds when growth and cohesion advance together. The Sofia Initiative rejects a two-speed Europe. Competitiveness cannot mean the concentration of wealth, innovation and influence in a few metropolitan centres. Europe's strength lies in its capacity to create opportunity across all regions and member states. We believe the next European chapter must be built on confidence: in enterprise, in innovation, in democracy, and in Europe's ability to remain a global power of prosperity and freedom.
From Sofia
"In Europe, there are two types of countries: small countries, and countries that don't yet realize they are small."
- Enrico Letta, President of the Jacques Delors Institute, Author of the report “Much More Than a Market”
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