Orgalim comments on State of the Union address

Crucial in this context will be the focus on the strategic importance of advanced manufacturing to Europe’s industrial future, and its green and digital transformation. This is one of the few technology fields where European companies currently enjoy an undisputed global lead. These technologies will be central to supporting the future global competitiveness of Europe’s manufacturing industries, generating sustainable prosperity for Europe’s citizens. The policy agenda should therefore focus on how to further strengthen our lead in this area, with special attention to the internal market, the digital and green transitions, and our global connectedness.

We fully support the President’s emphasis on the importance of Europe’s Internal Market. The crisis clearly demonstrated that it is the foundation of Europe’s economic resilience and success. Work on strengthening the Single Market needs to be implemented jointly with industry as core partner. In particular, improving market surveillance, addressing the current deficiencies in the European Standardisation System and safeguarding the New Legislative Framework as the foundation of innovation-friendly regulation in our industries must be core priorities.

We support the EU’s ambitious climate objectives and call on the co-legislators to work closely with industry to ensure we reach our climate goals, whilst ensuring our industries remain competitive and seize the opportunity to transform the global climate challenges into future growth opportunities.

Enabling the digital transformation of our industries is another core priority. We call for Member States and the EU to prioritise the continued deployment 5G as a core enabler for industry. We look forward to engaging with the European Commission on the proposals for a European Chip Act, as well as the new Cyber Resilience Act.

Finally, we fully support the focus in the SOTEU on the global dimension of Europe’s industrial future. Our industries rely heavily on global value chains and export markets for future growth. We therefore welcome the recognition that global supply chains and a level global playing field, embedded in a commitment to open markets and global partnerships, must remain core elements for an effective EU industrial strategy.

As a member of the European Commission’s Industrial Forum, we look forward to working with the EU institutions, Member States, civil society and other industry partners on many of these priorities.