The European Commission's communication on "Industrial Policy
in an Enlarged Europe” suggests the procedures by means
of which European industry can contribute to reaching the objectives
fixed by the Lisbon European Council in 2000. The objective is
to make the European Union an economic area at the summit of world
competitiveness by 2010, thus enabling it to achieve sustainable
economic growth with new and more qualified jobs and increased
social cohesion.
The following are necessary in order to initiate the new strategy
of industrial policy delineated by the Commission:
• to contribute to reintroducing, alongside the customary
horizontal actions intended to improve the general conditions
that influence industrial competitiveness overall, a specific
examination of competitiveness requirements in individual industrial
sectors, particularly those that play a key role in the growth
of the European economy;
• to compile the results of the broad consultation with
all of the interested parties that was launched by the Commission
in the White Paper on entrepreneurial spirit, and then to stimulate
the presentation/discussion of the resulting action plan;
• to draw possible synergy from the Feira Charter and from
the charter adopted in Bologna in 2000 by the OECD;
• to stimulate wide-ranging reflection on the policy of
innovation;
• to stimulate implementation of the action plan on biotechnologies;
• to extend the debate on the state of European competitiveness;
• to stimulate further reflection on the overall situation
of naval shipyards;
• to make every possible useful contribution to a careful
assessment of the impact on European enterprises of the legislative
proposals that the Commission intends to adopt following the White
Paper on chemical products;
• to examine fully the other initiatives expected by the
Commission concerning particularly important sectors which could
include, in particular:
• the textile industry;
• the pharmaceutical industry;
• the aerospace industry.
