Study on industrial permitting processes in the EU Challenges and opportunities for digitalisation
About the Study
This section brings together key findings, insights and best practices from a nine-month study in 2025, overseen by the Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (DG GROW).
The study was the first effort to examine permitting procedures in 14 EU Member States, focusing on the distribution of related administrative competences and the degree of their digitalisation. It sits at the core of the Commission’s strategy and Competitiveness Compass to support the European Single Market, by promoting and enabling faster, more digitalised procedures for businesses. Its findings and recommendations directly underpin the AI4Permitting Pilot.
Three levels of analysis structured the research:
Industry level
Project developers submitted permitting requests that entered a structured system shaped by both EU and national regulations.
Competent authorities level
The study mapped how responsibilities were distributed across national, regional, and local authorities, clarifying who did what at each step.
Technology level
The study explored how digital tools and IT systems were used to manage and streamline permitting. Each step of the process was broken down and analysed for its level of digitalisation.
Five key questions guided the research:
- How were competences distributed among permitting authorities across different levels of governance?
- How complex were the permitting processes?
- What digital tools were in place to support and enhance these processes?
- How effectively did these tools improve the permitting experience?
- How did businesses perceive the permitting journey?
Scope
Where we looked
14 EU Member States across four regions:
- Northern Europe and Baltics: Denmark, Finland, Latvia, Sweden
- Western Europe: France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands
- Southern Europe: Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain
- Central Europe: Czechia, Hungary
4 industrial sectors:
- Renewable energy and clean technologies
- Semiconductors
- Critical raw materials
- Pharmaceuticals
Key findings
What we found: key insights across 14 countries
Permitting involves between three and eight authorities in every country studied.
In 76% of cases, developers reported that dealing with multiple authorities extends their project timeline by several months or more.
No Member State has a single integrated digital platform for all permits.
All 14 have at least one national platform, but where authorities each run their own system, digitalisation replicates fragmentation rather than resolving it.
Permitting costs project developers between 119,000 and 460,000 euros per project in staff time alone.
For public administrations the equivalent figure runs from 215,000 to 250,000 euros. Neither side systematically tracks these costs.
80% of authorities still rely on email as their primary coordination tool.
Only 50% use integrated digital platforms for inter-agency communication, meaning fragmentation persists even where digital tools exist.
Digital maturity varies so widely that a unified EU approach has not yet been achievable.
Northern European countries have fewer, more integrated platforms. Southern European countries have multiple fragmented systems. Central European countries are only beginning to digitalise.
Recommendations
What this means in practice
The study’s recommendations are addressed to both the European Commission and Member States, grouped into three thematic areas drawn directly from the Final Report.
Governance
Clarify roles across levels of government and ensure single points of contact have the resources to function, not just the mandate. Better information-sharing between authorities is essential: most have limited visibility beyond their own part of the process.
Capacity building and accountability
Invest in permitting staff skills and introduce structured knowledge-sharing across authorities. Performance needs to be tracked: the study found that administrative burden is substantial on both sides but largely unmeasured at system level.
Digitalisation and interoperability
Prioritise integration over addition. Member States should move towards fewer, better-connected platforms with shared data standards. The study documents five national best practices that show what this looks like in practice.
Final Report
Study output
Study on Industrial Permitting Processes in the EU: Challenges and Opportunities for Digitalisation
Published 2026 | DG GROW | Intellera Consulting / Accenture