EU industrial strategy: a good step forward, tailor-made actions must follow
Today, the European Commission published its update of the “2020 New Industrial Strategy: Building a stronger Single Market for Europe’s recovery”. It aims at learning lessons from the COVID-19 crisis, strengthening the EU’s economic resilience and accelerating the climate neutrality and digital transitions.
BusinessEurope President Pierre Gattaz said: "We appreciate that the European Commission did this important stock taking exercise to update its 2020 Industrial Strategy. After more than a year of COVID-19 crisis, it is clear that the recovery will still take time and continued support to European industry and companies is needed more than ever. The Commission must tailor measures for climate neutrality and digital transition with the main objective to generate growth.”
“The work on industrial alliances at EU level is crucial to develop large-scale and cross-border industrial projects in strategic fields, where the market alone does not deliver. These industrial alliances together with Important Projects of Common European Interest are key to pool public-private investments. We support the Commission to further improve the rules for these IPCEIs.”
“The industrial and trade policies are interlinked and must be mutually reinforcing. Ensuring that the EU remains open to trade and investment is a prerequisite for achieving resilience. Trade can help diversify supply chains and allow the EU to have unobstructed access to those inputs that are critical for our capacity to innovate and scale up production.“
“The Single Market is our biggest asset, and its success will be key to enable the transition. The Commission should continue the focus on implementation and enforcement of rules. Having learnt the COVID-19 lessons, the idea of a Single Market Emergency Instrument to protect free movement of goods and services in possible future crises may be a step forward. On the other hand, we need strong measures removing the barriers in the Single Market that were present also before the crisis. BusinessEurope will look closely if such measures are present.”