Plenary sitting
28.6.2017
MOTION FOR A RESOLUTION
further to Question for Oral Answer B8-0319/2017
pursuant to Rule 128(5) of the Rules of Procedure
on industrial policy
( 2017/2732(RSP) )
Patrizia Toia
on behalf of the S&D Group
European Parliament resolution on industrial policy
( 2017/2732(RSP) )
The European Parliament,
– having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), in particular Articles 9, 151, 152, 153(1) and (2), and 173 thereof,
– having regard to Articles 14, 27 and 30 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union,
– having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) and to the Treaty on European Union (TEU), in particular to Article 5(3) TEU and to Protocol No 2 on the application of the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality,
– having regard to the Commission communication of 23 November 2010 entitled ‘An Agenda for New Skills and Jobs: A European contribution towards full employment’ ( COM(2010)0682 ),
– having regard to its resolution of 15 January 2014 on reindustrialising Europe to promote competitiveness and sustainability[1],
– having regard to the Commission communication of 22 January 2014 entitled ‘For a European industrial renaissance’ ( COM(2014)0014 ),
– having regard to the Commission communication of 14 October 2015 entitled ‘Trade for All – Towards a more responsible trade and investment policy’ ( COM(2015)0497 ),
– having regard to the Commission communication of 10 October 2012 entitled ‘A stronger European industry for growth and economic recovery’ ( COM(2012)0582 ),
– having regard to President Juncker’s Political Guidelines entitled ‘A New Start for Europe: My Agenda for Jobs, Growth, Fairness and Democratic Change’,
– having regard to its resolution of 5 October 2016 on the need for a European reindustrialisation policy in light of the recent Caterpillar and Alstom cases[2],
– having regard to the European Council conclusions of 15 December 2016,
– having regard to the Council conclusions on the Industrial Competitiveness Agenda, on the digital transformation of European industry and on the ‘Digital Single Market Technologies and Public Services Modernisation’ package,
– having regard to its resolution of 9 March 2011 on an industrial policy for the globalised era[3],
– having regard to the Commission communication of 19 April 2016 on Digitising European Industry – Reaping the full benefits of a Digital Single Market (COM/2016/0180),
– having regard to its resolution of 1 June 2017 on digitising European industry[4],
– having regard to the Council conclusions of 29 May 2017 on a future EU industrial policy strategy,
– having regard to the question to the Commission on building an ambitious EU industrial strategy as a strategic priority for growth, employment and innovation in Europe ( O-000047/2017 – B8-0319/2017 ),
– having regard to Rules 128(5) and 123(2) of its Rules of Procedure,
A. whereas European industry is a global leader in many industrial sectors, accounting for over half Europe’s exports and around 65 % of research and development investments, and providing more than 50 million jobs (both directly and indirectly, meaning 20 % of jobs in Europe);
B. whereas 65 % of business spending on R&D is by the manufacturing industry, and whereas the strengthening of our industrial base is therefore essential to keeping expertise and know-how in the EU; whereas digital development, a priority of the Juncker plan, needs a strong industrial base if it is to materialise;
C. whereas female entrepreneurs represent only 31 % of the EU self-employed population and 30 % of start-up entrepreneurs;
D. whereas European industry needs to preserve its competitiveness and capacity to invest in Europe, and whereas it also faces social and environmental challenges which it must address, in close cooperation with international partners, while remaining a leader in terms of social and environmental responsibility;
E. whereas an ambitious innovation policy which favours the production of high-quality, innovative and energy-efficient products and promotes sustainable processes will enable the EU to stand on its own in an ever more competitive world context;
F. whereas fair trade in industrial products must respect workers’ rights and environmental rules; whereas investment in renewable energy and energy efficiency is a major driver of investment in industrial products capable of creating virtuous circles; whereas innovation and investment in R&D, jobs and skill renewal are essential for sustainable growth;
1. Underlines the essential role of industry as a driver of growth, employment and innovation in Europe;
2. Emphasises the importance of strengthening and modernising the industrial base in Europe, while recalling the EU’s target of ensuring that 20 % of Union GDP is based on industry by 2020;
3. Calls on the Commission to present by early 2018, together with the Member States, a legislative proposal for a Union strategy for consistent and comprehensive industrial policy aimed at Europe’s reindustrialisation, establishing a concrete action plan to include ambitious targets and time scales for legislative and non-legislative measures in order to achieve those targets; calls on the Commission to base this strategy on an assessment of the impact of mainstreaming industrial policy into EU strategic policy initiatives and extensive dialogue with stakeholders, including social partners and members of the academic sphere; highlights the fact that such a Union strategy must be based inter alia on digitalisation (in particular the integration of smart technologies, big data analytics and robotics into industrial value chains), sustainability, the circular economy, energy efficiency and adequate resources; believes that the European regulatory framework should allow industries to adapt to the changes concerned and to take anticipatory action in order to contribute to quality job creation, growth and regional convergence;
4. Highlights the role of SMEs as the backbone of EU industry and stresses the need to pursue an EU industrial policy in an SME-compatible way; underlines the need to support the creation of a business-friendly environment by establishing a level playing field for all EU SMEs and social economy enterprises (such as cooperatives) and by supporting relevant clusters, business networks and digital innovation hubs;
5. Is convinced that European industry should be seen as a strategic asset for the competitiveness and sustainability of the EU; underlines the fact that only a strong and resilient industry and a future-oriented industrial policy will enable the EU to face the different challenges ahead, including its reindustrialisation, its transition to sustainability and the creation of quality employment; stresses that the Commission and the Member States need to better anticipate these socio-economic situations and ensure the competitiveness and sustainability of our industrial network;
6. Underlines that, in order to support the Union’s industry in facing the challenges of rapid economic and regulatory changes in today’s globalised world, it is essential to enhance Europe’s industrial attractiveness for European and foreign direct investment (FDI);
7. Asks the Commission to take into account industrial competitiveness and sustainability across all its major policy initiatives;
8. Underlines that, according to the available statistics and surveys, women are under-represented in most scientific, engineering and management posts and at higher hierarchical levels; notes that women are hugely under-represented in STEM-related educational fields and careers, accounting for just 24 % of science and engineering professionals; highlights the fact that female professionals in manufacturing industries are an asset for the EU and one that requires all available resources in order for the EU to recover definitively from the economic and financial crisis and to be able to face societal changes; calls on the Commission to identify the challenges and obstacles that women face in becoming entrepreneurs and to promote and support female leadership, including through salary equality and fair access to all job positions;
9. Highlights the need to fully exploit the potential of industry in terms of environmental technologies and to ensure that industries constantly develop and disseminate the best available techniques and emerging innovations, thus creating a competitive advantage for European industry, which should strive to offer the most sustainable products with the lowest life-cycle costs;
10. Emphasises the need to integrate environmental aspects into other policies, such as the economy, industry, research and innovation, so as to establish a coherent and common approach; considers that actions carried out within the Union should also be complemented by internationally strengthened actions and cooperation with third countries in order to address common challenges;
11. Believes that reduced administrative burdens and compliance costs for businesses, and the need to ensure high standards of consumer, employee, health and environmental protection, must be key components of any EU reindustrialisation policy;
12. Calls for the EU industrial policy to be based on clear targets and indicators – including ambitious energy-efficiency, resource and climate objectives – and a life-cycle and circular economy approach;
13. Calls for the integration into the EU industrial strategy of effective green financing instruments and measures to help increase market transparency as regards carbon risk, and highlights the need to facilitate the sustainable development of industry in respect of the goals set out in the Paris Agreement;
14. Calls for increased consistency between trade policy and industrial policy to ensure that trade policy takes account of the needs of European industry and that the new generation of trade agreements does not lead to fresh relocations and further deindustrialisation in the EU; notes in this context the importance of taking the debate forward on how to enhance reciprocity in the fields of public procurement and investment; welcomes the initiative to analyse investments from third countries in strategic sectors;
15. Underlines the role of the social partners in the development of a coherent industrial strategy, which must incorporate a social dimension to ensure that labour rights are not undermined by the current industrial transition; stresses that successful workplace innovation is dependent on worker participation and in particular on good industrial relations between workers and management, as innovation is often the result of the identification by workers of how to make improvements to their work environments, end products or manufacturing methods;
16. Stresses that European industry faces global competition, and therefore calls on the Commission to re-evaluate market definitions and the current set of EU competition rules to take into account the evolution of respective global markets and thus to allow for strategic partnerships and alliances and for the emergence of players with sufficient critical mass to cope with international competition; calls on the Commission in addition to revisit EU competition law in order to more adequately take into account the emergence of the role of major national players in third countries, taking into consideration social, taxation and environmental standards so as to avoid new forms of dumping;
17. Emphasises the need for a consistent WTO-compatible and effective anti-dumping and anti-subsidies strategy for the EU that takes into account any kind of dumping, including lack of compliance with international social, environmental and taxation standards;
18. Calls on the Commission to pay more attention to the role of foreign-based state-owned enterprises that are supported and subsidised by their governments in ways that the EU single market rules prohibit for EU entities;
19. Calls on the Commission to screen third country FDI in the EU, in the interests of security and protection of access to key future technologies, while bearing in mind that Europe depends to a large extent on FDI and should generally remain very open to foreign investment;
20. Calls on the Commission to establish a regulatory environment for platforms to ensure consistency of regulations within the EU, including with a focus on the need for regulatory certainty, appropriate and clear rules and a level playing field;
21. Calls on the Commission to come up with legislative proposals on free flow data, cybersecurity and data ownership capable of supporting the competitiveness of European industry and its digital transformation, while ensuring the highest levels of data protection;
22. Emphasises the need for coordinated EU efforts to pursue the promotion of new skills as well as retraining, up-skilling and life-long learning, as advocated by the Commission in its Agenda for New Skills and Jobs; calls for an appropriate consultation with the social partners on their development;
23. Calls for the promotion of transversal innovation alliances in order to overcome the situation of silo-dominated industrial policy approaches which stifle innovative potential; considers the role of public investment to be strategic in the development of this objective and calls for the EU to support public investment in innovation;
24. Recalls the important role of EU standardisation and advocates a strong focus on the EU’s leading role in international standards organisations;
25. Takes note of the need to coordinate EU efforts towards reducing resource dependency on third countries through a four-pronged focus on:
a. fair international market access to resources
b. sustainable domestic mining
c. efficiency-technology innovations
d. the circular economy
with EU contributions to multilateral global resource policy governance;
26. Believes that the mega-trends of globalisation and digitalisation represent the greatest challenges for European companies and their employees and, at the same time, challenge policy makers owing to the high dynamism of developments and their cross-cutting nature; is convinced, therefore, that European policy must be adapted to be able to support European industrial growth and secure quality jobs in the manufacturing industry in this rapidly evolving context; underlines that a new industrial policy strategy must align different policy areas with industrial policy – most importantly trade, environment, research, investment, competition, energy and climate – to form one coherent approach; is convinced that an industrial policy strategy must combine horizontal elements with specific approaches to important strategic sectors in a smart way;
27. Advocates a comprehensive EU industrial policy approach that gives high priority to strengthening EU value-chains and integrating all EU regions into a revitalised EU industry network, while ensuring overall territorial cohesion;
28. Calls for a regionally balanced industrial strategy capable of closing the gap between the most and least industrialised regions of the EU, helping to achieve the EU objectives on regional convergence;
29. Stresses the importance of the timely adoption of a Union strategy, as it could also influence discussions on the areas of focus in the new Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) and particularly the CEF, FP9 and ESIF instruments;
30. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, and the governments and parliaments of the Member States.