EU Industrial Strategy Aims to Improve Trade

The European Commission launched March 10 a campaign on governments that have failed to implement directives or otherwise hindered trade in favour of their own national champions. The announcement was part of its industrial strategy to direct climate neutrality and  digital leadership, “at time of moving geopolitical plates and increasing global competition,” it said.

Recognising that “Europeans continue to experience barriers that prevent them from fully exploiting the potential of the single market,” such as restrictive and complex national rules, limited administrative capacities, imperfect transposition of EU rules and their inadequate enforcement, the EC has adopted a plan for the better implementation and enforcement of single market rules. It will be based on a “renewed partnership between member states and EC in their shared responsibility to ensure that single market rules are properly enforced and applied,” the statement says.

There have been a number of cases in the energy sector where the EC believes governments have tipped the scales in favour of the state-owned incumbents, for example Poland and France in the case of gas storage. And Romania had until recently restricted gas exports.

There is also a dedicated strategy for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) which aims to “reduce red tape and help Europe's numerous SMEs to do business across the single market and beyond, access financing and help lead the way on the digital and green transitions,” the EC said.

EC president Ursula von der Leyen said that industry “is the motor of growth and prosperity in Europe… This is more important than ever as Europe embarks on its ambitious green and digital transitions in a more unsettled and unpredictable world.”

The commissioner for internal market Thierry Breton added that the green and digital transitions and “avoiding external dependencies in a new geopolitical context requires radical change - and it needs to start now.”

Industrial strategy goals

The Industrial Policy package has three key priorities: maintaining European industry's global competitiveness and a level playing field, at home and globally; making Europe climate-neutral by 2050; and shaping Europe's digital future. It also declares war on intellectual property theft.

The ongoing review of EU competition rules, including the ongoing evaluation of merger control and fitness check of state aid guidelines, will extend to a White Paper by mid-2020 to “address distortive effects caused by foreign subsidies in the single market and tackle foreign access to EU public procurement and EU funding,” it said.

But there will also be comprehensive measures to modernise and decarbonise energy-intensive industries, support sustainable and smart mobility industries, to promote energy efficiency, strengthen current carbon leakage tools and secure a sufficient and constant supply of low-carbon energy at competitive prices. Part of this will be a “Clean Hydrogen Alliance,” followed by alliances on low-carbon Industries and on industrial clouds and platforms and raw materials