Europe’s funding landscape is being reshaped by geopolitical pressure, strategic competition and shifting European Union (EU) budget cycles. Public money is no longer just supporting discrete projects; it is becoming central to how businesses finance decarbonization, circularity, energy transition, digital infrastructure and strategic capacity. Credits, grants and incentives are now a core lever for competitiveness, resilience and ESG delivery, but the landscape is fragmented, fast-moving and can often be difficult to navigate.
The report, Competing in Europe’s green-industrial transition, explores tax incentives and grants in Europe and seeks to give organizations a clear, decision‑ready view of this evolving environment. It maps the most relevant EU and national programs for industry, highlights where funding opportunities are most material for different types of investment and shows how to turn sustainability commitments into measurable financial outcomes. The report is designed to help leaders build a structured funding strategy, identify the right projects and partners early, and position investments so they can remain competitive, resilient and aligned with Europe’s emerging priorities.
Key highlights
How can KPMG in Belgium help?
The KPMG report, Competing in Europe's green-industrial transition, outlines how the European Union is recalibrating its subsidy framework in response to a fundamentally altered geopolitical landscape. While European policy was once built on the assumptions of stable globalization and affordable energy, the energy crisis, disrupted supply chains, and an escalating subsidy race with the United States and China have compelled Europe to link sustainability more closely to competitiveness, strategic autonomy, and security of supply. As a result, funding instruments such as Horizon Europe, the Innovation Fund, the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the Cohesion Fund, and the Just Transition Fund are evolving beyond their traditional focus on research and innovation. Increasingly, they are being deployed to finance core business investments, including decarbonization, circular economy initiatives, the energy transition, and industrial scale-up.
Translation to the Belgian context
For Belgian businesses, this European context feels highly familiar. High energy costs, growing international competition, and the need to decarbonize and modernize production processes are placing increasing pressure on industrial competitiveness. While major European funding instruments offer significant financial leverage, they are often geared towards large-scale, capital-intensive, and frequently cross-border projects, and involve application processes that can be highly competitive and time-consuming. For many Belgian SMEs and mid-sized companies, however, the most immediate and accessible forms of support are much closer to home. National and regional funding schemes often provide a more practical route to financing sustainability initiatives, enabling businesses to advance their green transition with greater speed and certainty.
Subsidies in Belgium are primarily a regional matter
Whoever, in Belgium, is looking for support for an investment in greening, energy efficiency, or decarbonization will almost automatically end up at the level of Flanders, Wallonia, or Brussels. Each region has its own agency, its own support instruments, and its own application procedures, all tailored to the regional business landscape and policy priorities. Regional support is generally more accessible, faster to apply for, and better aligned with the specific circumstances of an individual company than a European call requiring participation in a mandatory European consortium.
Providing a comprehensive overview of all available regional subsidies would go beyond the scope of this insight piece. However, the available options can be illustrated through an example. In Flanders, a company can apply to VLAIO (the Flemish Agency for Innovation and Entrepreneurship) for the Ecology Premium+ (Ecologiepremie+). This subsidy supports investments in a predefined list of green technologies (cooling, transport, heat, and water solutions) and can amount to up to €1 million. Wallonia has a similar support measure in the form of Aide GREEN.
The low-hanging fruit
While the large European programs highlighted in the report often require years of consortium building, significant entry barriers, and complex reporting obligations, regional support schemes in Belgium represent the low-hanging fruit. They are quicker to access, require only an individual application, and can still provide substantial levels of funding. Through VLAIO, for example, companies may secure grants of up to €1 million for eligible projects. For many Belgian businesses, the most logical first step in their green transition is therefore not to knock on Europe's door, but on that of their own region.
How KPMG can help
KPMG supports organizations throughout this journey: from identifying relevant funding opportunities at both regional and European level, to embedding subsidies within a broader investment and transformation strategy, and ultimately developing and submitting successful grant applications. In doing so, we help Belgian companies accelerate their green investments, improve access to available funding, and maximize the impact of their sustainability ambitions.
Competing in Europe's green-industrial transition
Europe's green-industrial transition
