Last year, the European commission formulated a laudable and ambitious goal: to raise the share of industrial production in Europe's GDP to 20 per cent by 2020. Last week, the figures on industrial competitiveness presented by the commission served as a first indicator on where the journey has taken us so far. However, rather than moving towards the 20 per cent mark, the share of industrial production in the EU once again slid downwards - from 15.5 per cent one year ago to 15.1 per cent in summer 2013.
With domestic demand remaining weak in most member states, a sharper drop was only prevented by strong foreign demand which resulted in a number of recovery gains owing to exports outside the EU. Notwithstanding this positive aspect, recent developments are still highly worrisome from an international point of view and the consistent decline of the EU's manufacturing output on a global scale has remained unstopped, which means that we are set to witness for the first time the EU's share fall behind China's in the very near future.
"Given the lack of progress in turning the tide and halting the decline of industry's share in the EU, one thing is clear: we need to do better"
The good news in the bad news is that, by now, there is a wide-spread consensus on the EU level that strong and competitive industrial production is essential to create jobs and drive Europe out of recession. And I am pleased to see that industrial policy will feature prominently on the European agenda in the next six months.
However, given the lack of progress in turning the tide and halting the decline of industry's share in the EU, one thing is clear: we need to do better. More specifically, in order to ensure that future measures actually reach the companies and make a difference in business practice we need to be sure they are sufficiently relevant and comprehensive.
In this context, I would like to draw attention to the sectoral dimension of the EU's approach to industry. The EU is home to a great number of world-leading industrial sectors, many of which include large international companies as well as a rich diversity of small and medium-sized enterprises.
For some of these sectors, the EU has already proposed a set of strategic measures. Other sectors have been somewhat less privileged and have not benefitted from such tailor-made approaches. So there is room for improvement here. In fact, achieving a deeper understanding of the specific challenges and opportunities of the different sectors may well hold the key for developing EU measures that do work on the ground.
One platform that I hope will send a positive signal of how such sectoral understanding can be improved is the upcoming 2013 Cece-Cema summit 'Towards a competitive industrial production in Europe', which I have the pleasure of hosting on 16 October at the European parliament. The co-organisers, the manufacturers of construction equipment and agricultural machinery organised within Cece and Cema, operate in two important industrial sectors and run major production facilities and R&D sites in Europe.
I look forward to discussing how the EU can play a more active role in helping the companies in these sectors to deliver inclusive and sustainable growth in the years to come. I urge all of you to join these debates so as to make sure the 20 per cent target by 2020 becomes a realistic and attainable goal once again.