With the ink barely dry on the new European industrial strategy, presented in March 2020 (see EUROPE 12443/7), MEPs on the European Parliament Committee on Industry and Research (ITRE) called for a new strategy to address the pandemic and its consequences in a report adopted on Friday 16 October (by 52 votes to 7, with 12 abstentions).
In the report, written by Italian Social Democrat Carlo Calenda, MEPs propose an industrial strategy divided into two phases: one focused on recovery and the other on reconstruction and resilience.
The intention is for the new strategy to be more inclusive, and to include all SMEs with a social dimension, in order to make up for the jobs destroyed in so-called “traditional” industries and as a consequence of the health crisis and the dual transition - green and digital - that will need to be the focus of the strategy in a second phase.
The text was unanimously supported by the EPP, S&D and Greens/EFA groups. Renew Europe was divided between the western delegations, which seemed to be more in favour of an interventionist policy, and the eastern delegations, which seemed to prefer a more laissez-faire approach. The far-right group ID group abstained.
Report too lacking in ambition for the left
The GUE/NGL group voted against the report. In a minority opinion, this group felt that the strategy makes the wrong choice in systematically prioritising competitiveness to the detriment of social issues. The group also criticised the fact that subsidies are not accompanied by social and environmental stipulations. More than anything else, the group is concerned that a more concentrated internal market will lead to significantly greater territorial disparities.
The report will be put to the vote at the plenary session on 23 November.
The compromise amendments can be found at: https://bit.ly/35dvjPn (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)