Strasbourg, 14/07/2006 (Agence Europe) - On 5 July, the European Parliament adopted the report by Spanish Socialist Joan Calabuig Rull called “Towards a more integrated approach for industry policy”, thereby indicating its desire for a political framework to strengthen the EU's manufacturing industry. While acknowledging the “important role” played by manufacturing industry in Europe, the report also highlighted the impact of changes in the industrial sector on the services sector and, therefore, the interdependence between the secondary and tertiary sectors. The EP stressed that it was necessary to develop a coherent and integrated industrial policy to deal with the challenges of globalisation, and welcomed the Commission's communication of 5 October 2005 setting out the principles for a new industrial policy combining seven concrete sectoral actions and seven cross-sectoral strategic initiatives (see EUROPE 9042). To ensure these initiatives were applied, the EP called on DG Enterprise to assume responsibility for coordination and asked the Commission to inform it of progress made through these initiatives before the end of the year.
For the EU to remain an industrial power and not simply a service economy, the emphasis had to be put on quality, said the report. Regretting the fact that EU industrial exports remained generally concentrated in sectors of medium technology and at a weak to average level of qualification, the report stressed the importance of increasing efforts to bring improvements in education, training and lifelong learning, issues not taken enough into account, it said, in the Commission document. Among other key factors making up the political framework to strengthen European manufacturing industry were recurrent themes: - importance of flexible regulatory framework that favours the development of companies, especially SMEs, and investment; - role of the “modern” public sector, whose task is to provide the infrastructure and promote education and innovation; promotion of best practice in business environment and entrepreneurial spirit, “from which spring corporate social responsibility and gender equality”; - promotion of the transfer of technologies and innovation; - crucial role of SMEs and micro companies and the importance of easier access to funding and risk capital.
Pointing out that manufacturing industries were often concentrated in certain regions, the EP called on regional and national authorities, working closely with economic and social players, to set up local strategies for zones that could become the centres of innovative manufacturing clusters. The EP also called on the Commission to explore the possibility of enhancing cooperation between regions faced with common problems and challenges, and the possibility of encouraging the creation of networks of manufacturing companies located in these regions.
On the social level, the EP stressed that the unions, consumers' organisations and business associations had to be stakeholders in the debate on industrial policy, so that the responses on the needs of this policy were the most apt and the most exhaustive. Welcoming the creation of the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund, Parliament stressed the need for this fund to help workers who had lost their jobs because of globalisation to find work by improving and adapting their qualifications. Additionally, it asked for Community aid to be refused to companies which, after benefiting from a subsidy in one Member State, transfer their production to another.
On the international level, the EP called on the Commission to concentrate its efforts on combating unfair competition and counterfeiting, and asked it to present concrete proposals on protection of and respect for intellectual property rights before the end of the year. It also called on the Commission to monitor and keep a register of the level of compliance with European legislation on environmental and consumer health of imported products and to assess the extent to which the competitiveness of European products was affected by it. Stressing the importance of improved access to the world market for EU manufacturing industries, the EP called on the Commission to pursue its efforts to identify international practices which could have a negative impact on European companies' competitiveness (regulations or subsidies) and to tackle obstacles to trade and investment.
Following the adoption of a Green/EFA amendment, the report stressed that energy efficiency and energy saving measures had to be incorporated into industrial policy.