This briefing examines how the EU’s proposed 2028–2034 Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) can finance a credible clean transition while also delivering on competitiveness and security, with a particular focus on Ireland’s 2026 Presidency of the Council of the EU. It argues that the MFF debate has been increasingly framed as a zero‑sum trade‑off between climate action and geopolitical or economic priorities and instead sets out how the clean transition can be integrated into the EU’s wider competitiveness agenda.

The paper explores three core pillars: a Clean Industrial Strategy under the Clean Industrial Deal and European Competitiveness Fund; grid modernisation and cross‑border infrastructure through CEF‑Energy and the EU Grids Package; and a just transition grounded in regional fairness and robust governance, including strengthened performance and climate‑tracking rules.

It concludes with concrete recommendations for how Ireland can act as an honest broker to reframe the MFF as a European public‑good instrument. In particular it recommends tightening the performance framework to reduce greenwashing, refocusing CEF‑Energy on system‑wide bottlenecks, aligning the Grids Package with MFF investment priorities, anchoring the 35% climate target in genuine additionality, and applying an efficiency‑first, demand‑side lens to competitiveness spending.