European Commission Daily News 23rd Feb
President von der Leyen opens the EU Industry Days: “let’s accelerate the recovery and make Europe more competitive in the world”
President Ursula von der Leyen opened today the EU Industry Days 2021 delivering a speech in which she praised the European industry its resilience amidst the coronavirus pandemic, while highlighting that we needed to draw the lessons from the crisis. President von der Leyen said: “The pandemic has led to an unprecedented disruption of our Single Market. This should never happen again. This is why we are working on a Single Market Emergency Instrument. It will ensure the free movement of goods, services and people, with greater transparency and coordination.” The President also addressed some of the challenges ahead for the industrial sector: “Another lesson we have learnt is our dependency on certain raw materials sourced from only a handful of producers. Green and digital technologies currently depend on a number of scarce raw materials. We must diversify our supply chains. This is the goal of our Action Plan on Critical Raw Materials. And this is why we have proposed to create a European Raw Materials Alliance.” Finally, she referred to the successful public-private cooperation of the last year, saying: “In these months, as we fought the virus, we have explored new ways of working with European industries. I believe we should move from crisis mode to a new cruising speed of cooperation with European industries. Building new and agile alliances where the public sector joins forces with industry. Our Battery Alliance makes for a very good example. I want Europe to invest in this approach – building new alliances and partnerships with the private sector.” The full speech of President von der Leyen is available here and the video can be watched again here.
EU to set up new European Partnerships and invest nearly €10 billion for the green and digital transition
The Commission proposed today to set up 10 new European Partnerships between the European Union, Member States and/or the industry. The goal is to speed up the transition towards a green, climate neutral and digital Europe, and to make European industry more resilient and competitive. The EU will provide nearly €10 billion of funding that the partners will match with at least an equivalent amount of investment. This combined contribution is expected to mobilise additional investments in support of the transitions, and create long-term positive impacts on employment, the environment and society. The proposed Institutionalised European Partnerships, some of which are building on existing joint undertakings, aim to improve EU preparedness and response to infectious diseases, develop efficient low-carbon aircraft for clean aviation, support the use of renewable biological raw materials in energy production, ensure European leadership in digital technologies and infrastructures, and make rail transport more competitive. The European Partnerships are approaches provided by Horizon Europe, the new EU research and innovation programme (2021-2027). They aim to improve and accelerate the development and uptake of new innovative solutions across different sectors, by mobilising public and private resources. They will also contribute to the objectives of the European Green Deal and strengthen the European Research Area. Partnerships are open to a wide range of public and private partners, such as industry, universities, research organisations, bodies with a public service mission at local, regional, national or international level, and civil society organisations including foundations and NGOs. More information is available in this press release.
Read the European Commission Daily News in full here.
