Raw materials, hydrogen, batteries, semiconductors, transport, food, cyber technology and pharmaceutical patents are some of the major categories in which the European Commission has put the protectionist magnifying glass with the aim of guaranteeing the industrial autonomy of the EU and avoiding breaks in the supply chain.
Its intention is to conduct a "sounding exercise" among more than 5,000 "critical" products to determine the level of dependence on third countries in each one and "offer basic input to the Commission to see where resilient value chains need to be built", he said. affirmed yesterday from the Euskaldun palace in Bilbao, the European Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders.
"It is necessary to continue protecting European industry against market distortions" and to promote "a better internal production and manufacturing capacity for certain strategic products", he added.
Reynders announced the initiative after the meeting of the 27 EU Industry Ministers in Bilbao, in a press conference by Spanish Minister Héctor Gómez and the Secretary of State for the European Union, Pascual Navarro. It was one of the few novelties of an informal meeting designed to contrast different reindustrialization strategies and prepare another meeting in Granada in October to specify measures.
In the background there is the accelerated loss of European industrial autonomy evidenced first with the pandemic and then with the invasion of Ukraine. The Spanish presidency went to the meeting yesterday with a basic document focused precisely on the concept of industrial resilience and dedicated itself to acting as an arbitrator, without getting into the fine print.
What is at stake this semester is the creation of a road map on the strategic industrial autonomy of the EU. It is about fixing the financing of reindustrialising initiatives, a regime of public aid and new mechanisms for the protection of value chains so that they serve as a reference for the European Commission that will be set up next year.
Brussels, as Reynders explained, is also polling among partners their impression of subsidies to EU products. The idea is to protect them from outside, but without disrupting the single market through uncompensated State aid. "It is important to reduce European dependence on third countries", insisted Reynders to justify these particular protectionist watermarks.
In the next two months of the Spanish presidency, Brussels wants to promote a regulation on raw materials and a proposal on a carbon-neutral economy. "The measures go hand in hand with others to facilitate investment, and prevent investors from fleeing Europe", said the commissioner.
"One of the great objectives of the Spanish presidency - assured Héctor Gómez - is to achieve a road map to achieve the objective of reindustrialisation". The Commission is also working on a new chip regulation and an emergency mechanism to guarantee supply chains in case of crisis.
