It names US tech giants known as the “Gafa” (Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon) and China’s “Bat” (Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent) as companies that have bought out potential rivals and now “manage the global digital agenda”.

“Europe has no such companies,’’ says the document. “This presents a risk to growth, jobs, and to Europe’s influence in key strategic sectors.”

Ms Von der Leyen, who enters office on November 1, has promised that her commission will “invest in innovation and research, redesign our economy and update our industrial policy”.

The draft says the fund should be focused on buying up long-term shareholdings in “EU-based corporates in strategically important sectors”. Its investment priorities should be on “developing strategic sectors” and “building and strengthening the innovation leaders of the future”.

Although Paris and Berlin are likely to back such a plan, governments such as the Dutch have been reluctant to support Brussels relaxing its competition rules to allow for mergers or “picking winners” in the race to compete with global rivals.

EU officials hope the creation of a central fund with significant financial firepower will encourage the private sector money to “crowd in” to projects.

The €100 billion amount would rely on leveraging public money from EU governments. The document suggests the next long-term EU budget could earmark money for the fund.

China’s sovereign wealth fund, known as China Investment Corp, is among the biggest in the world while Norway, which is not in the EU, boasts Europe’s biggest nationally owned fund.

EU officials said the European Future Fund was not part of the formal policy program of the incoming commission. “Draft internal brainstorming documents should not be confused with policy” said a spokesperson for the commission.

- Financial Times