International Blog

After days of negotiations, the European (EU) head of government has agreed on the new multi-year budget and a recovery fund of EUR 750 billion in response to the COVID-19 (coronavirus) crisis. To maintain its power as a bloc between the USA and China, Europe needs a joint industrial policy. On March 10, the European Commission presented a new industry strategy as a solution. Within this strategy, the Commission publishes a number of initiatives to support the transition to a green and digital economy — a new industry strategy for a globally competitive, green and digital European region. One of its key priorities is to achieve climate neutrality by 2050 and commit to preserving European companies’ competitiveness for the sake of preserving the EU’s global competitiveness. The Explanatory Memorandum to the Strategy states that the single market provides EU companies with a large domestic market, stimulating trade and competition while increasing efficiency. Better integration and functioning of that market can provide additional growth in many areas, such as in industrial goods where an additional growth of EUR 183 to 269 billion per year is possible and in services where an additional EUR 338 billion per year can be realized. These amount to an increase in EU GDP of about 12 percent.