3 December 2024
Brussels and Online
We are delighted to invite you to a hybrid event which will be held on Tuesday, 3rd of December at 17.00.
This event is public and will be held both onsite and online.
This is a public event, hence the Chatham House Rule will not apply.
The event will start at 17.00 both onsite and online, while the onsite welcoming will begin at 16.30. The discussion will last around an hour and a half
This event will consist of an afternoon of discussion on the EU’s industrial policy for the next legislative term. The event will also be a timely opportunity to discuss the challenges enshrined in the process of fostering Europe’s competitiveness in an increasingly complex global stage, with our distinguished speakers:
Andrea Wechsler MEP (EPP/DE);
Nicola Gonzalez-Casares MEP (S&D/ES);
Ivars Ijabs MEP (Renew Europe/LV);
Benedetta Scuderi MEP (Greens /IT);
Ondrej Krutilek MEP (ECR/CZ).
The debate will be moderated by Paola Tamma, Brussels Correspondent, Financial Times.
Due to a limited number of seats, please await final confirmation from us after registration, if you wish to attend this event in person.
The audience will be able to ask questions both in person and through sli.do #IndustrialPolicy
We look forward to hosting you on the 3rd of December 2024.
For registration here
Report here
About the debate
The evolution of the world’s economic structure, the need to act against climate change, as well as the rise of geopolitical tensions, have brought industrial policy to the forefront of both the European and the global agenda. Economic blocs and individual nation-states across the globe are increasingly focused on building resilient and self-sufficient economies capable of withstanding shocks and maintaining the greatest degree of autonomy possible. The European Union, in particular, is faced with a series of challenges and is striving to transition towards a cleaner and more competitive industrial base. For these reasons, during the speech for her re-election as a President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen pledged to implement a new plan for Europe’s sustainable prosperity and competitiveness that should have as a cornerstone the implementation of a Clean Industrial Deal.
On the same note, in the speech of April 2024, Mario Draghi remarked that Europe has never had an ‘Industrial Deal’ at the EU level, despite the European Commission’s efforts to address this gap. In addition, while several promising initiatives are underway, he stated that the need for a comprehensive strategy to effectively respond across various sectors remains. Against this backdrop, he called for a ‘radical change’ in the overall approach of European institutions and EU member states towards competitiveness, innovation and sustainability. The former President of the ECB also warned that a lack of strategically designed and coordinated policy actions would result in European industries shutting down capacity or relocating outside the EU. This stance was preceded by the Antwerp Declaration, in which several relevant industry players, with the support of the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the European Union, expressed their full support for a European Industrial Deal to complement the Green Deal and to meet climate neutrality by 2050.
The question of how competitiveness and sustainability can be combined had also been contemporarily addressed at the June 2024 meeting of the European Council, which meant to set the course of action through a strategic agenda providing guidance for the work programmes of EU institutions for the 2024-2029 period, as well as in another Mario Draghi’s speech, which called for a renewed industrial strategy for Europe. If Mario Draghi’s position has been pretty straightforward and its underpinning stances were reiterated in the final version of the Report on the future of European Competitiveness, an evolving political landscape coupled with the challenges of finding a consensus at the European Council level makes it difficult to foresee which concrete actions will be taken in order to close the competitiveness, technological and resource gap with other regions of the world.
There seems to be a general agreement on the general principles of a renewed EU-wide industrial policy with the primary objectives of developing further industrial capabilities and shaping a trade policy aligned with Europe’s economic and geopolitical best interests while decarbonising the European economy and society as a whole. However, timing, financing, as well as a well-defined priority-setting to industrial and trade policies, remain, among others, the main unknowns of a historical challenge for the old continent.