A transition pathway for a more resilient, digital and green retail ecosystem

On 10 March 2020, the Commission adopted a new Industrial Strategy to help EU industry lead the green and digital transformations and to drive Europe's competitiveness and strategic autonomy. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, the update of the EU Industrial Strategy highlighted the need to further accelerate the green and digital transitions in line with the EU Green Deal and Digital Decade and increase the resilience of EU industrial ecosystems. In the 2021 update of the Industrial Strategy, the Commission has identified retail as one of the 14 industrial ecosystems crucial for the recovery of the EU economy. It has also proposed transition pathways for most of these industrial ecosystems based on co-creation processes with stakeholders. These transition pathways should identify current and future challenges as well as opportunities in the different ecosystems and accompany the green and digital transition of these ecosystems towards 2030 and beyond. In July 2023, a Staff Working Document provided a vision for the future of the retail ecosystem and invited stakeholders to express their views and join the co-creation process of a retail transition pathway. The retail transition pathway aims to encourage collaboration between all actors in the ecosystem to accelerate its green and digital transition and to improve its resilience. The primary goal of the document is to leverage existing initiatives pertinent to the ecosystem, to facilitate their execution, but also to enhance collaboration of the relevant actors to support the ecosystem in its transition. This document therefore does not aim to introduce any novel legislative actions. This document is an outcome of a co-creation process with a broad community of retail ecosystem stakeholders. The objective now is to invite all stakeholders to engage and play their part in the co-implementation process. Following the publication of this document, the Commission will invite stakeholders to present their commitments to the transition pathway for retail and will establish collaboration processes for the co-implementation and monitoring of the work.