Emilia-Romagna companies do not stop investing, but in 2026 they ease off the accelerator. After the 690 million deployed in 2025, the programs for this year stop at 611 million, 11% less. It is not a retreat, but a reasoned slowdown: companies do not give up innovating, but select more, postpone some projects and measure risk more carefully. This is the central message of the annual survey by Confindustria Emilia-Romagna, built on 329 companies with 17.7 billion in turnover. There are also two other key points: last year investments absorbed on average 4.9% of turnover (slightly lower than 5.3% in 2024); in 2026, 86% of companies will still invest. “In this scenario, Emilia-Romagna companies continue to invest to strengthen their competitiveness,” emphasized Riccardo Fava in his first public appearance as regional president of industrialists, who will be supported by Enrico Aureli and Nicola Parenti as vice presidents, presented yesterday.
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Returning to the numbers, the decline in amounts in the 2026 planning tells very different situations. Small companies increase investments by 6%, almost forced by their very nature not to interrupt renewal. Medium-sized companies retreat, while large ones reduce spending by 18%. But the data must be read with caution: large groups do not carry out exceptional operations every year and their investment cycles are more discontinuous. Also weighing are the signals from the most exposed sectors. The ceramics industry of Sassuolo has already made it clear that every extra euro allocated to ETS risks translating into one euro less for development. What slows decisions down are mainly geopolitical uncertainty, indicated by 35.6% of companies, bureaucracy, and a difficult-to-predict demand. For medium-sized companies, the burden of compliance is now the main obstacle; for large ones, the most serious issue is finding adequate skills. “Human capital takes on an increasingly strategic value,” notes the regional president of Confindustria, because “the ability to attract, train and retain talent will be one of the main competitive factors in the coming years.”
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Priorities, however, remain clear. Companies continue to focus mainly on machinery (72% of the sample), software (64%) and training (63%), while digitalization, research and skills gain importance. This is a sign that industrial investment no longer coincides only with the warehouse or production line, but with an increasingly close intertwining of physical capital, technology and people. Here, however, the delay of the smallest emerges, still little present in research, sustainability and digital innovation projects. “A fragility that risks widening the productivity gap within the regional system,” warns Fava. The simplification factor therefore becomes crucial. Confindustria proposes to the Region a “bureaucratic shock” with a 30% cut in authorization times in procedures.
It is an ambitious, almost provocative proposal, and “it would be an important result to give a boost to investments,” insists the president. The judgment on the Region is not only critical, however. “We recognize the value of the path taken with the Pact for Work and Climate and the unlocking of the Bologna Bypass,” but the work is still long: from the Cispadana, considered decisive for the industrial development of part of the region, to infrastructure and energy. “Because this is not the time to slow down.”
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