Industripolitik

2006

The European Commission has launched a new industrial policy for Europe, which is reviewed in this paper. While manufacturing industry remains a key building block of the European economy, it faces a number of challenges - as well as opportunities - in the form of rapid technological change; increasing trade and financial integration of the world economy; and the rise of new emerging market competitors. Whilst some sectors are performing strongly, the overall industrial structure of the EU economy makes it less than ideally positioned to face these challenges. The new industrial policy articulated by the Commission is to help the European economy adapt to the new circumstances. In contrast to old policies that sought to "pick winners", the new approach starts from the screening of horizontal policies and framework conditions in terms of their implications for specific industrial sectors. Second, the Commission has integrated policy by bringing more closely together differe...

Intereconomics

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This survey of European industrial policy aims to set out and explain the great significance of European integration in determining (changes in) structure and performance of industry in the EU. This influence is explored from the policy side by analysing the transformation of the framework within which both EU and Member States' industrial policy can be pursued.

As a consequence of the major social transformation, digitalisation and decarbonisation, an active and strategic reorientation of European economic and industrial policy is necessary to meet the economic and social challenges associated with the transformation. Particularly important points from the perspective of workers are the macroeconomic framework conditions for employment and sustainable prosperity, including through the circular economy, as well as fair distribution and attention to the social question. The latter is central to both the design and implementation of industrial policy. Link to the Position Paper: https://www.akeuropa.eu/industrial-policy

2020

This policy report stakes a stance on industrial policy in the European Union in the light of the revived interest in the subject and the most pressing challenges ahead. In the current global context these challenges are (i) to keep pace at the technology frontier with the technologically most advanced economies; (ii) to meet the challenge of fast catching-up emerging economies; (iii) to contribute to the convergence and cohesion processes within the EU; and (iv) to deal with climate change and environmental sustainability issues more generally. A quantitative exercise that makes use of the EU’s budget data, including the structural funds, and member states state aid expenditures is used to identify the EU’s current industrial policy priorities. The results are the basis for an assessment of the extent to which the key challenges are addressed at the supranational level and which aspects are primarily dealt with by national governments.

After the economic crisis of 2008–2010 the Member States, instead of improving cooperation and deepening their integration within the Internal Market of the EU, began thinking about public interventions, including changes in state aid rules and the introduction of a new industrial policy. The concept of a new industrial policy is subordinated to the Europe 2020 strategy, although achieving its targets may in some instances contradict the main goal: increasing the competitiveness of the EU’s entrepreneurs. Moreover the European Commission established the goal of reversing the declining role of manufacturing, which in 2012 stood at the level of around 16 per cent of GDP, aiming to increase its level to 20 per cent of GDP by 2020, although this is not the EU industry competitiveness index. Due to the many statements, declarations and letters issued by the Member States about the need for a new industrial policy, it is important to identify the real industrial leaders of the EU and their approach to public interventions within the internal market.

Intereconomics, 2015

One lesson of the Great Recession has been that countries with higher shares of industry in their GDP seemed to be less affected by the crisis. Consequently, the call for an industrial renaissance has become stronger. Industrial policy has now become a top priority in countries where it was not explicitly considered in the past. A strong EU-wide industrial policy is expected to foster growth and job creation. However, cultivating industrial development is a complex challenge. This Forum addresses the steps that need to be taken to create a new European industrial policy. What are the structural challenges that need to be addressed? What are the instruments of the EU's industrial policy? And should the EU be engaged in picking winners, or is the market better at making such judgements?

Industrial and Corporate Change, 2019

This article examines the main actions in the field of industrial, investment and innovation policy currently carried out at the European level, focusing on the changes in Europe’s manufacturing production since the 2008 crisis. Current actions by the EU in this field are assessed—including funding programs, fiscal rules, competition policy, the Juncker Plan-InvestEU initiative and the activities of European Investment Bank. The present and potential space for such initiatives is examined in the light of the growing debate on the need for a return to a greater role for public policies in favoring sustainable growth and support investment. In view of the debate on the new EU budget 2021–2017, the scope for a more active industrial policy is discussed.

This paper examines the state of Europe's industry and competitiveness in the current crisis and provides the rationale for a new industrial policy at the European level. Section 1 documents the decline of EU industry and the losses in outpud resulting from the crisis started in 2008. Section 2 investigates the issue of competitiveness, an issue at the top of the EU Commission policy agenda. Competitiveness is seen at the heart of economic growth and in the current crisis much of the policy advice from Brussels has focused on ways to restore the competitiveness of weaker countries. Mainstream notions of wage-driven price competitiveness as a determinant of export success of EU countries are not convincing. Rather it is technology, product quality, immaterial capabilities and the characteristics of goods and sectors that are crucial factors explaining the dynamics of productivity and competitiveness in Europe. Section 3 is devoted to the employment dimension. During the recession the job creating potential of product innovation has been lost leaving space to process innovations and job losses that have hit hardest craft and manual workers. A process of skill, job and wage polarisation has characterised the European employment structure leading to increasing inequality and poverty. Not all European countries have been affected in the same way, leading to a cntre-periphery polarisation in terms of unemployment and productivity. Section 4 concludes with a specific proposal for a new European industrial policy that could orient structural change towards enironmental sustainability, ICT applications and health and welfare systems. In these fields the employment impact is likely to be significant also in terms of skills and wages of the workforce. Sintesi