A stronger European

Industry for Growth and

Economic Recovery
Press
conference
10 October
2012
 Goal

• Currently industry accounts for around 16% of EU

GDP.

• We need to reverse the declining trend started

in mid-90s

• Goal: Industry approach 20% of GDP by 2020

The recovery has stalled
EU27 production trend
Manufacturing accounts for 15.5% of
Europe's GDP
Manufacturing in Member State economies (as % of GDP; 2011)

EU
15.5%
 Industry: an opportunity for growth

• Industry remains a key driver of research,

innovation, productivity, job creation and exports.

• 80% of innovation is made by Industry. For each

new job in the manifacturing sector there is a new
one also in services. 75% of EU export comes
from industry.

• That’s way we need to revese the industrial

decline.
Pillars of the reinforced industrial policy

• Investments in innovation
with a focus on six priority areas
• Better market conditions
improvements in the functioning of the
Internal Market and opening up international
markets
• Access to capital
mobilising public resources and unlocking
private funds
• Human capital and skills
equipping labour force for industrial
transformations
 Six priority areas for investment

• Advanced manufacturing technologies

• Key Enabling Technologies
• Bio-based products
• Clean vehicles and vessels
• Sustainable construction and raw materials
• Smart grids
 How to achieve our objectives

• A strategic partnership between the EU, the

Member States and industry
• The new cohesion policy instruments for 2014-
2020 will help Member States to increase their
competitiveness through smart specialisation
• European Semester and Country-Specific
Recommendations to Member States
• Ultimately, it is about industry playing its role
and investing in innovation, in conquering new
markets and in skills
Country groups

• Consistent performers
• AT, BE, DE, DK, FI, FR, IE, NL, SE, UK
• Uneven performers
• CY, EE, EL, ES, IT, LU, MT, PT, SI
• Catching-up group
• BG, CZ, HU, LT, LV, PL, RO, SK
• Groups based on cluster analysis
• Reveals similar behaviour along the indicators
• Not a ranking
• Some countries behave in a very similar fashion
• Others are more idiosyncratic
• But the three groups demonstrate quite strong similarities.
 Labour productivity in manufacturing

Source: Eurostat (except for LU STATEC); expressed as gross value

added, in 1 000 PPS/employee, 2011. LU, IE, EU average are for 2010;
data for BG, RO and the UK are not available.
 Business environment

Components of business environment:

- Starting a business
-Dealing with construction permits
-Registering property
-Obtaining credit
-Protecting investors
-Enforcing contracts
-Resolving insolvency

Values normalised to between 1 for the best performance over 2006-2011

and zero for the worst performance.
Source: World Bank Doing Business
 Price of electricity
Electricity prices for medium-sized enterprises, 2011

Eurostat, data refer to prices in the second half-year; including tax, except
VAT; expressed in euro/KWh. No data for AT.