During a working dinner on the subject of industrial competitiveness on Monday 20 February in Brussels, the French Secretary of State for Industry, Christophe Sirugue, said that member states were expecting concrete proposals for supporting European industry, at the next Competitiveness Council.
In reply to EUROPE, Christophe Sirugue, asserted that several member states had expressed their wish to move more quickly and have more solid elements sooner with regard to support for industrial competitiveness at the next Competitiveness Council on 29 and 30 May next.
The Commissioner for the Internal Market and Industry, Elżbieta Bieńkowska, confirmed during a press conference, the request for member states to put forward a holistic document for supporting European industry but did not yet confirm any date in this respect. She fully supports this request but could not set any date yet because the College of Commissioners has not yet debated the issue.
The question of reindustrialising the European economy was once again openly mooted by the Commissioner for Industry, Antonio Tajani, in 2014 (see EUROPE 11126), before falling into limbo again when the new European Commission took shape.
Following the closure of many emblematic industrial centres in the EU, (see EUROPE 11637), several states called on the Commission to get a grip of the dossier this year. This request was only very partially heeded by the Commission, however, judging by the definitive version of its 2017 work programme (see EUROPE 11696).
French initiative. In January 2017, the Secretary of State for Industry, Christophe Sirugue and the Secretary of State for External Trade, Matthias Fekl, wrote a column in Libération calling for a European approach to promote a “made in Europe” policy to counter the “increasing competition from the emerging economies”.
The industrial sector was on offensive last week ahead of the Competitiveness Council and in a joint statement urged the European Commission to present a “realistic and ambitious” timetable for industry to account for a 20% share of EU GDP (see EUROPE 11728). (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)