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The strategy coming from Brussels

Last week, Bdaily attended the European Industrial Policy Conference in Brussels, where senior commissioners discussed the need to envoke an “industrial renaissance” across member states.

There was much citation of the US, and its successful move back towards industrialisation through the shale gas boom, and how Europe must reverse the decline of manufacturing industries.

Co-ordination of industrial policies is no mean feat, and it might surprise some Bdaily readers to learn that not all European countries are in agreement on the need to reindustrialise. The European backing of green cars is a good example of how common must satisfy the desires of all member states. Nobody is against green cars in principle, but is it the economic saviour of the Eurozone? It could well be, but this is the type of dyanmic that affects strategy.

The Commission’s ambition to raise industry’s contribution to EU GDP from 15.2% to 20% by 2020 will require some substantial sectorial technologies to take hold. As one EC senior said, picking winners and losers isn’t going to be the answer.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .