Investing in a smart, innovative and sustainable Industry: A renewed EU Industrial Policy Strategy.

Investing in a Smart, Innovative and Sustainable Industry: A New Industrial Policy Strategy for the EU is the key document for the EU Industrial Policy. The overall purpose of this policy is to achieve the climate-neutral and digital leadership transformation of the European industry in order to increase Europe's competitiveness and strategic independence at a time of geopolitical changes and increasing global competition and to empower industries to create jobs and growth. The EU's New Industrial Strategy lays down a set of actions to support all actors of European industry, including large and small companies, innovative start-ups, research centres, service providers, suppliers and social partners. The New Industrial Strategy focuses on three key priorities to strengthen the leading position of European industry: (I) maintaining the global competitiveness of the European industry and establishing equal competition conditions both in Europe and at the global level, (II) making the European economy climate-neutral by 2050, and (III) shaping Europe's digital future.
This policy underlines that the important role of the industry in economic growth is indisputable, since it is a key driver of productivity and innovation. Europe is the global leader in many industries, especially in high value added, low carbon and sophisticated products and services. However, the policy puts emphasis on the need to take actions by Member States, EU institutions and most importantly industry itself to maintain and reinforce Europe's industrial leadership in the age of globalization, sustainability challenges and rapid technological change. To this end, the ability of the EU industry to continuously adapt and innovate will be strengthened by facilitating investment in new technologies and embracing changes brought on by increased digitization and the transition to a low-carbon and more circular economy. In order to make the EU industry stronger, the implementation of legal and policy frameworks will be strengthened, with a focus on (i) creating jobs and growth through innovation and investment, (ii) competitiveness at the global level and sustainable growth, (iii) circular and low-carbon economy, and (iv) active involvement of stakeholders including businesses. The integration of the companies in European and global value chains will be facilitated through a deeper and fairer Single Market. The benefits of industrial transformation will be widely spread and the industry, people and local communities will be empowered to adapt to social, economic and environmental change. Lifelong learning, equal opportunities and fair access to education, training and technological skills will be provided to the stakeholders to build resilience to the emerging digital labour market. Standardization system will be modernized to help developing timely and market-driven standards that allow EU industries to reap opportunities in emerging market segments.
Europe's growth and competitiveness will be improved by boosting the uptake of smart technologies along and across industrial value chains and promoting firm growth. Due to the ongoing industrial revolution, EU businesses at both large and small scales will be supported for their adaptation to digital transformation. Digital industrial platforms will be strengthened to help bringing together different technologies and applications, facilitating the development of new products, processes, and in particular new business and service models. Transformation of EU companies towards more sustainable and resource-efficient business models will be supported to protect the environment, provide competitive advantage by creating important cost savings, and also to create new jobs and opportunities for workers and entrepreneurs. To this end, the transition towards a circular economy, including circular plastics economy and bioeconomy, will be promoted to help the EU to accelerate progress towards a circular and low-carbon economy improving production of renewable biological resources and their conversion into bio-based products and bioenergy. Investment from within and outside the EU on both infrastructure and new technologies will be encouraged for EU industry to drive industrial transformation, facilitate the uptake of promising innovation and provide a favourable environment for the scale-up of dynamic SMEs. Therefore, European firms will be encouraged to innovate and invest which give rise to competition and increased productivity, and thus ensures long-term sustainable economic growth. Industrial innovation will be supported to enable the creation of new markets that drive jobs and growth. Finally, the EU aims at strengthening international, multilateral and bilateral trade relations to create economic opportunities for Europeans, whilst taking measures against unfair trading practices, and the Member States will be encouraged through appropriate tools to stimulate and support industrial competitiveness.