Brussels, 21/09/2015 (Agence Europe) - The participants at a roundtable organised on Friday 18 September by the Commissioner for the Digital Economy, Günther Oettinger, on the adaptation of European industry to the digital era, are unanimous: there is an urgent need that all the different stakeholders adopt measures needed to ensure that the full benefits provided by digital technology are fully taken advantage of. The Commissioner was also delighted that the participants had also supported the main action guidelines included in the European Single Digital Market Strategy presented on 6 May by the European Commission (see EUROPE 11309).
The roundtable brought together senior leaders from the industrial, pharmaceutical and aeronautical sectors, as well as representatives from SMEs, employers' organisations and representatives of the EU Public Private Partnerships signed in December 2013, in an attempt to help develop technologies, products and new services (see EUROPE 10986). The aim of the meeting was to continue discussions between the Commission and the different sectors in European industry that began during the previous meeting organised last June. The ultimate goal of these roundtables is to listen to the opinions from European industry with regard to the major objectives set out in the Digital Market Strategy, explained Oettinger. Industry particularly supports the following objectives: creating a secure and industry friendly environment across industry, particularly for SMEs, wherever they are located in Europe and for any sector; developing European leadership in digital industrial platforms and identifying smart regulatory solutions for smart industry.
The Commissioner emphasised that “Our strategy aims to establish a link between national and regional initiatives like Industrie 4.0, Smart Industry, Industrie du Futur, High Value Manufacturing etc. thereby providing the necessary degree of coordination and helping to reach critical mass where individual initiatives cannot achieve the right scale on their own”. The Commissioner and his team will now analyse the comments and reflections provided by industry, in an effort to define more concrete action at a European level. The indications of what this concrete action should be are expected to be presented to stakeholders during the next round table organised with industry at the beginning of 2016. (Original version in French by Isabelle Lamberty)