The European Policy Centre’s (EPC) Task Force on an Industry Action Plan for the European Union was launched in 2017 and has since provided a platform for an exchange of ideas on how to revive European Union (EU) industrial policy. The Task Force has been organised as a series of public events, workshops and meetings. It has facilitated discussions among representatives from EU institutions, member states, trade unions and business organisations, both in Brussels and beyond. The Task Force has been kindly supported by the European Climate Foundation, the European Chemical Industry Council (Cefic) and the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA). Throughout the project, the EPC has also been regularly engaging with EU institutions and EU governments.
Through country seminars organised across Europe regions and workshops held in Brussels, the EPC will seek to review member states’ perspectives on industrial policies and identify possible areas for EU action. These activities will look at how existing EU regulatory and financial tools could help implement the common strategy for Europe’s industrial transformation. The Task Force will pay special attention to the role of the single market, investments, trade, competition policy, taxation, R&D and innovation, education and the skills agenda, as well as digital instruments.
The project’s flagship publication ‘An Industry Action Plan for a more competitive, sustainable and strategic European Union’ was published in October 2019 – setting out concrete recommendations for the newly elected European Commission to drive this agenda forward. The Task Force also builds upon past activities, namely the 2014 Task Force on ‘A New Industrial Policy for Europe’ and the findings published in the 2014 Issue Paper “Towards a New Industrial Policy for Europe”.