European networks, including NECSTouR, representing stakeholders across all 27 EU Member States, bringing together 285+ regions, and connecting 900+ innovation ecosystem organisations have co-signed an Open Letter to call on the European Commission, the European Parliament and the European Council to safeguard and reinforce Smart Specialisation Strategies (S3), and protect multi-level governance in the next Multiannual Financial Framework post-2027. This will be essential for connecting regional strengths with EU priorities, fostering collaboration and bringing innovations to market across borders. In brief, our key messages are:

• Maintain S3 as a mandatory strategic reference within NRPPs, ensuring that regional and sub-national innovation strategies are used as an essential input into national planning
• Recognise S3 as a multi-level governance and investment coordination framework, not merely a territorial planning tool under Cohesion Policy
• Retain a clear pathway for interregional implementation and increase interregional collaboration through strengthened #RegionalInnovationValleys and #I3Instrument
• Introduce binding requirements for genuine regional involvement in the design, implementation and monitoring of NRPPs
• Prevent the effective recentralisation of cohesion-type investments, ensuring that simplification enhances, rather than weakens, territorial effectiveness

In conclusion this is a call for a balanced and future-proof budget, which must not force a false choice between competitiveness and cohesion. Europe’s ability to innovate, transition and remain globally competitive depends on mobilising all its territories. Smart Specialisation is not a legacy tool but a strategic asset for Europe’s future.

We urge the European Commission, the European Parliament and the European Council to ensure that the final MFF framework reflects this reality, and that Europe’s regions remain actors, not bystanders, in shaping Europe’s economic future.