According to the “revisited” strategy for the European Union’s industrial strategy presented by the European Commission on Monday 18 September, the latter would like to set up a roundtable of high-level business leaders, in an effort to facilitate discussions between itself, industry and civil society. The aim of this roundtable would be to better orientate and adjust future industrial policy action.
There are few changes to highlight with regard to the version obtained by EUROPE last week (see EUROPE 11861). The communication is more of a balance sheet of what has already been undertaken by the European Commission in view of supporting the different economic sectors. This is because, as indicated by Vice President, Jirky Katainen, this strategy is based on the 2009 strategy for industry and aims to bring together in a single document, all the different actions taken to obtain “an overview” of what is already “on the table” and subsequently improve identification of what could possibly be missing. There are therefore no thundering announcements made but rather a number of improvements to the mechanisms that already exist or are being implemented. A timetable has been included in the annex of future action and in relation to the multiple strategies that have already been announced since the beginning of the Commission’s mandate.
The Commission therefore intends to put forward initiatives for implementing the rights relating to intellectual property this autumn in an attempt to promote innovation and creativity through the creation of a “predictable and clear” environment for essential patents relating to standards. This autumn, the Commission will also be presenting an initiative to improve the way in which public orders operate and which will include a voluntary mechanism to help the authorities put large-scale infrastructure projects into place.
On the issue of cyber-attacks, the Commission presented a raft of measures to better protect Industry and the public authorities against cyber-attacks, particularly by way of setting up a new agency that will entirely focus on the question and which will award a certificate for products and services throughout the European Union. In the digital domain, the Commission also intends to improve data flows for non-personal data between member states in an effort to create a “genuine European data area”.
As we already indicated last week, the Commission is also gearing up to announce a raft of actions in the circular economy, particularly for plastic products and enhancing the production of renewable organic resources. To this end, the Commission has identified a range of materials for which it has made an inventory (see EUROPE 11861). On the question of the ecology, the Commission is also seeking to present a raft of initiatives to improve clean transport by improving carbon dioxide emission standards for cars and vans, as well as an action plan to support the building of replacement fuel infrastructure and expanding autonomous vehicles.
On this last point, Commissioner for the single market and industry, Elżbieta Bieńkowska, once again hammered home her message on ‘Dieselgate’ (see EUROPE 11862): diesel engines belong to the past and it is time to turn to new “zero emission” technologies and transport. She believes that the majority of us will be driving an electric vehicle in the next 10 to 15 years. Mr Katainen went even further and considers that the transition will be over a five-year period.
Finally, among the different areas in which to build, we are highlighting the Commission’s determination to improve the regulation of investments made by third countries in strategic sectors, as well as extend the skills strategy to new industrial sectors (construction, steel, paper, renewable energies, manufacturing industry and maritime transport).
Moderate enthusiasm displayed by Parliament and industry
Édouard Martin MEP (S&D, France) said that this is not the most important thing and in his comments made to EUROPE, claimed, “it’s empty, there is nothing”. The MEP added, “This text is nothing but poetic ramblings seeking to fill the void”. He also said that the speech made by the President of the Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, on the state of the union, highlighted a contradiction: increasing the number of trade agreements whilst seeking to protect industry. The MEP concluded “what we require is an amendment to the treaties so that it is possible to create a European champion that can compete within a context of globalisation and with certain global juggernauts, particularly in China”.
In reply to EUROPE, the head of economic and fiscal policies at the UEAPME, Gerhard Huemer, said that he had the impression that the Commission was not convinced of the need to adopt a genuinely holistic strategy. He did, however, appreciate certain points in the strategy that represented “A good starting point” particularly with the clear mention of SMEs and shared responsibility for industrial policy between the regions and member states. Mr Huemer welcomed the plan to set up an industry day event and said that he also wanted a day set up for SMEs.
BusinessEurope said that the Commission’s communication resembled a “first step”. The organisation considers the setting up of a high-level roundtable to be a positive move but is highlighting, however, the need to develop a range of indicators in an effort to better define European industrial policies. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)