The Competitiveness Council on 29 September looked like it might be lacklustre but came up with a surprise proposal to give the European Union an ambitious industrial strategy, an idea that won wide support among the member states.
In the light of recent setbacks for European industry, be it steel (a question on the ministers’ agenda), Caterpillar in Belgium or Alstom in France (see EUROPE 11625), Belgium asked the Commission to deal with the issue of deindustrialisation and come up with...