Commission Consultation on the Future “EU 2020” Strategy - COM (2009) 647/3
The engineering sector Orgalime represents plays a key role in Europe today and looks forward to continuing this in the future: at an economic level – by contributing significantly to the overall economic output of the EU; at a social level – as a major provider of employment and benefits to society and individuals; and at a technological level – as a driver and enabler of innovation.
We welcome the Commission’s consultation paper and the idea of developing a longer term vision for the EU at a time when Europe is facing a number of changes and challenges.
We share the Commission’s vision that industry, as a driver of the real economy, will play a key role in moving towards a new sustainable market economy which will provide sustainable growth and employment, including, but not only, by becoming a smarter and greener economy. Our industries have long recognised the growth opportunities offered by green, smart and energy-efficient products as outlined in the ELECTRA report and recently confirmed by the Commission’s ELECTRA Communication. We therefore welcome the Commission’s continuing focus on industrial policy and we hope the new Commission will continue to build on the work carried out in collaboration with the outgoing Commission with our industry in various high level groups (EnginEurope and ELECTRA ).
We believe that European industry can aspire to maintaining a leading role in the world economy. However, in order to do so it needs to be able to compete on an equal footing with other regions of the world so as to be able to realise its full potential. This is becoming all the more important at a time when, as reported in the Commission’s report 'The world in 2025 – rising Asia and socio-ecological transition', we see growth shifting rapidly to other parts of the world such as Asia while Europe still struggles to emerge from the economic crisis. The policy measures deriving from a future 'EU 2020' strategy will need to take account of continuing globalisation and trends outside Europe.