Industrial policy

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🗓️ 11 January 2019

⏱️ 7 minutes

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Summary

Through its industrial policy, the European Union (EU) has been striving to create conditions conducive to increasing industry growth and competitiveness since 1992. European industry remains a cornerstone of the economy, providing one job out of five and is responsible for the bulk of EU exports and investment in research and innovation. Today, the aim of EU policy is to enable a successful transformation towards a digital, knowledge-based, decarbonised and more circular industry in Europe. To reach this goal, the EU supports, coordinates or supplements Member State level policies and actions, mainly in the areas of research and innovation, SMEs and digital technologies. In a recent Eurobarometer poll conducted for the European Parliament, more than half of EU citizens expressed support for increased EU action on industrial policy. Despite this, it is still the least understood policy area covered in the poll. Since 2014, efforts have been made in a number of areas, including investment (mainly through the European Fund for Strategic Investment, which supports industrial modernisation); digitalisation (for example setting up a number of research partnerships, or a growing network of digital innovation hubs); financing (making it easier for industry and SMEs to access public markets and attract venture funds); greener industry (for example through the revised 2030 emission targets, or measures on clean mobility); standardisation (bringing together relevant stakeholders to collectively develop and update European standards); and skills (mobilising key stakeholders to close the skills gap and providing an adequate workforce for modern industry). The European Parliament has called for ambitious policies in many of these areas. In the future, EU spending on key areas relevant to industrial policy is expected to rise moderately. The European Commission proposes to boost the share of EU spending on research, SMEs and key infrastructure, although not as much as Parliament has requested. In the coming years, policies are likely to focus on fairer global competition, stimulating innovation, building digital capacities and increasing the sustainability of European industry.
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/thinktank/en/document.html?reference=EPRS_BRI(2018)630309

Source: © European Union - EP

Transcript

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0:00.0	Want to know what Europe does for you? Welcome to European Parliamentary Research Service
0:06.0	podcast on the EU's industrial policy. Industry is the engine of innovation, growth and exports,
0:12.2	and it offers quality jobs to Europeans. But Europe's industrial structure is undergoing deep
0:17.6	transformation driven by new technologies and business models.
0:20.8	The EU is supporting this modernisation effort to ensure that our industry stays competitive
0:25.5	in global markets.
0:26.8	Want to know more? Stay with us.
0:30.5	Did you know that Belgium, this small country in the heart of Europe, was once one of the
0:34.5	largest iron producers in the world?
0:36.6	Or that in the 19th century, Britain
0:38.5	produced about 90% of the world output of coal. Yes, Europe was once an industrial giant,
0:44.5	but since the mid-1900s, machines began to replace workers and factories, and jobs started
0:49.3	shifting from the manufacturing to the services sector in most countries, and the trend has continued
0:54.6	into the new century. The contribution of manufacturing to European GDP diminished from just over
1:00.4	18% in 2000 to 15% in 2012, and the recent economic and financial crisis has been a heavy blow
1:08.2	for European industry, with 3.8 million jobs lost in the space of four years.
1:13.4	However, since 2012, things have been improving, even if we're not yet at pre-crisis levels.
1:18.3	But today, industry remains a cornerstone of the economy, providing one job in five and more than 80% of EU exports,
1:25.5	and attracting the biggest share of private investment in research
1:28.6	and innovation.
1:29.6	Europe is a global leader in many industrial sectors and technologies, particularly those with
1:34.5	high value added, greener production and a low ecological footprint.
	...

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