The leaders of Europe’s biggest multi-national companies have united to call for an ambitious new industrial strategy to put the region at the forefront of efforts to tackle the major challenges of the 21st century, such as climate change, digitisation and global trade. The European Round Table for Industry (ERT), a group comprising chairs and CEOs of 55 of Europe’s leading industrial companies (among which Philips), responsible for around five million jobs globally, have released an industrial strategy paper, entitled “Turning Global Challenges into Opportunities – A Chance for Europe to Lead”. The paper coincides with the new European Commission taking up office and deciding priorities for the next five years including a long term strategy for the future of EU industry. ERT welcomes and supports this and calls for smart policies to enhance competitiveness, strengthen innovation and ensure that European industrial companies can thrive in an increasingly complex world, whilst creating value for society.
Measures which industry leaders are calling for include:
-The EU to deliver a European “Green Deal” which fosters investment in low carbon processes and technologies and ensures a supply of clean energy and raw materials for European industry at competitive prices
-A pan-European plan to accelerate the digital transformation and roll-out 5G infrastructure
-Increase investment in digital skills and training
-Modernised competition rules to allow EU firms to compete at scale globally
-A renewed focus on innovation, including at least €120 billion to be committed in the next EU budget to the new Horizon Europe programme and policies to make it easier to bring innovations to market.
