Follow-up of the study on the Competitiveness of the Mechanical Engineering industry

The recently published study on the competitiveness of the mechanical engineering industries, for which we thank the Commission, recognises the industry as a strategic enabling industry which participates actively in the Europe 2020 goals including at the level of societal changes, competitiveness and growth. The study describes the industry as strong and healthy and expects a bright future for mechanical engineering in Europe. The study also highlights the central role played by the mechanical engineering industry for climate change policies to meet Europe’s environmental challenges, such as resource efficiency and energy.

The mechanical engineering industry is described as one of the leading manufacturing sectors in terms of performance and one of the most competitive in Europe, highly technology and export oriented. The industry has succeeded in maintaining its share of world markets while other major producers such as Japan and the USA have seen sharp drops in their output and share of global production.

If in the follow up to the economic crisis, in the months up to mid-2011, there had been a resurgence of growth, European mechanical engineering is today beginning to feel the impact of increasingly fierce competition on global markets: in recent months this trend has, for some sectors of the industry, become more pronounced.

After having established a strict and straightforward austerity and stability policy, the EU will now have to focus on the question how to create more growth in order to mitigate the consequences of the debt crisis. In this context, the mechanical engineering industry can and must play a strong role. If the EU wants to create more growth, it must build on their strengths and this is, among other, the European mechanical engineering industry because [more below]