Basis CAB Breton/750
DG GROW
Meeting between Commissioner Breton and representatives of the European Round Table
for Industry (ERT)
23 February
ERT contribution to industrial strategy
BRIEFING NOTE (Commission Internal)
Scene setter/Context of the meeting:
The European Round Table for Industry (ERT) Members include
CEOs and Chairs from around 55 of Europe’s largest companies in
the industrial and technological sector.
ERT Competitiveness and Innovation
Committee, would like to discuss the way in which ERT could
contribute to support the preparation and implementation of the
update of the Industrial Strategy.
ERT
is a member of the newly
established Industrial Forum. ERT published in November a
position paper cal ing for key performance indicators to measure
progress of the EU industrial strategy.
Objective of the meeting:
• Confirm the importance of dialogue with stakeholders in the
ndustrial strategy development and implementation.
• Prepare positive reception of the updated Industrial Strategy
– foreseen for 17 March – by ERT.
KEY messages
For all items at the agenda
• ERT is an important partner for the implementation of the
new Industrial Strategy and its update.
• We are looking forward to ERT’s active contribution in the
newly established Industrial Forum.
• We count on ERT support for the Industrial Strategy update.
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Line to take
[A new Industrial Strategy for Europe]
• In March 2020 we presented a new Industrial Strategy for
Europe.
• It aims to facilitate European industry’s efforts to lead the
twin transition to climate neutrality and digital leadership,
towards increased competitiveness on the global stage.
[Updating our industrial strategy, industrial ecosystems, strategic dependencies, KPIs]
• The COVID-19 crisis has confirmed our priorities set last year.
• It has also accelerated trends such as green and digital
transformations and our reflexions about the resilience of
supply chains.
• In light of the lessons learnt, we wil present an update of our
Industrial Strategy in the coming weeks.
• We wil further look into the transformation needs and
chal enges that
industrial ecosystems are facing.
• They include al players operating in a value chain, from large
companies to smal SMEs and start-ups, from training centres
to research institutes, and related services to suppliers.
• Our Industrial Strategy update wil also focus on
strengthening resilience and building strategic capacities.
• Our work starts with a more structural monitoring of
disruptions, dependencies and risks.
• As a first step, the Commission has implemented a bottom-
up mapping to identify and assess possible strategic
dependencies, based on a comprehensive methodology,
starting with a few critical ecosystems (e.g. public health or
key elements in our ability to drive the green and digital
transition).
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• Our work will cover both the angle of resilience in global
value chains as well as competitiveness in advanced
technologies.
• In the update of the Industrial Strategy, we wil also propose
a set of
key performance indicators for monitoring the
industrial strategy and competitiveness, in line with the
request of the Council [16 November 2020].
[Contribution of ERT to industrial strategy development and implementation]
• The Commission has an important industrial ambition for
Europe.
• We need our industry leaders to share this ambition at a
time of accelerating technological race and aggressive global
competition.
• Our industrial strategy is based on a method of partnership
and cooperation between EU institutions, Member States
and industry.
• We see ERT as an important partner on industrial strategy.
Commitments from its CEO members can be an important
contribution to successful implementation, be it on upskilling
and reskilling or on the transition to climate-neutrality and
circularity.
[Contribution of ERT to work on Industrial Forum]
• We wil continue working closely with al relevant players in the
assessment of our analysis, for instance in the context of the
recently established
Industrial Forum.
• This new, inclusive and open mechanism for co-designing
solutions gather Member States and a wide range of
stakeholders, including European industrial associations, NGOs,
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trade unions, research and technology organisations, and
associations of regions and clusters.
• It wil bring al Member States and industrial stakeholders
together for the implementation of the industrial strategy.
• The Forum will be of great value: with the approach for the 14
industrial ecosystems, as wel as for the cross-cutting chal enges
and opportunities for our industry.
• I am looking forward to active contribution from ERT to the
work of the Industrial Forum, reflecting an important number of
companies.
• The first meeting took place on 1 February, ahead of the update
of the Industrial Strategy. Future meetings wil take place in
April and in the second half of the year.
• In our first meeting, discussions focused on the digital and
green transitions, the need for inclusiveness and the
importance of a strong Single Market, innovation, skil s and the
creation of quality jobs.
• Moreover, members highlighted the importance of keeping a
green and digital focus in the recovery investments.
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Background
Assessment of ERT paper
In November 2020, ERT published a paper titled “Putting the EU Industrial Strategy into
action: KPIs for tracking progress and benchmarking competitiveness”
Main messages of the paper
The paper proposes a set of 28 indicators, organised around 4 main dimensions: (i) Output
performance, (ii) Internal processes, (iii) Future orientation, (iv) global relationships. This set
of indicators is complemented by 5 headlines indicators: Gross value added, Employment,
Wages and salaries, Fixed investment, Goods exports.
Very importantly, each indicator is matched to a
target. Most of the targets are dynamic, as
they are set based on a global benchmark, that can change over time. For instance, rather
than saying that EU industry should account for 20% of total GVA, they say that it should
account for at least the same share of global industry to global GVA.
ERT invites the European Commission to:
1. Develop and formally
adopt Key Performance Indicators, as a basis for regular
monitoring.
2.
Set targets for EU competitiveness, as the other targets (green and digital) cannot be
achieved without competitiveness.
3. Publish data on the KPIs every year as a new “
European Competitiveness Report”.
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