We celebrated while it lasted: Just a few months ago, the industry was on everyone's lips. The pandemic and the lack of supplies put her on the front line. Its contribution was evidenced, the risks of not having a diversified industry were verified. Now we have left urgent needs behind and we have forgotten about it, we have stopped putting the intensity and emphasis that it requires. The industry is disenchanted.
"Tothom se'n remembers from Santa Bàrbara quan trona" or "A port arribat, vot oblidat"... There are many expressions to characterize the eternal situation that we live with the industry. It doesn't matter if she, together with the foreign sector, is the one that gets us used to helping out of crises. It does not matter that industry is the sector that generates the most stable employment, and in which there has been a higher salary increase in all its professional positions, as highlighted by the 2007-2022 Salary Evolution Report recently presented by EADA and ICSA. It is the same that for every euro invested in industry, more than 4 euros of investment are generated in the rest of the sectors.
The European Union determines the need for a strategic autonomy based on the industry and, within its powers, all administrations must move in this direction. Despite all this, there are well-founded doubts about whether we will end the legislature with the promised Industry Law. Although many people have been working intensely and making contributions, deputies from the different political groups have already verbalized that, being in an election year, it will not be approved. Why is there no widespread awareness of the key issues?
While some communities are trying to move forward, for example the Basque Country with its Industrial Development Plan 2021-2024 and in Catalonia with the Pacte Nacional per la Indústria 2022-2025 -on which we request the same consensus in its execution as in its approval–, in Congress it does not seem that the industry is interested now beyond the big declarations. As the Industry Law draft itself indicates, it addresses and drives industrial promotion, improvement of competitiveness, reindustrialization, digitization, adaptation to climate neutrality, industrial strategic autonomy, industrial ecosystems and projects for general interest. At a time when these great challenges have to be faced, we have just experienced the double change of ownership in the Ministry and the General Secretariat for Industry.
We have to ask for responsibilities. We need an Industry Law that contributes to laying the foundations and facilitates the improvement of the competitiveness of our economy. We knew that we were entering a stage where the public would gain weight, with greater regulation and with new active policies. But the industry feels that, in practice, only the first is chosen, which is also necessary, but the second does not arrive.
The public sphere must act responsibly and quickly. Taking care of the industry is not necessary for the sake of it. It is the one that will contribute to the transition that we must make towards a new, more sustainable model, to provide social improvements and greater well-being. The positive industry requires the necessary impulse so that it can carry out its mission. The facts do not accompany and, as a consequence, once again the industry feels slighted.
