On 27 February 2024, the European Commission published a Communication setting out a European strategy to ensure industrial leadership in advanced materials. Advanced materials are an important factor for the competitiveness of European industries and constitute crucial building blocks for the EU’s resilience and strategic autonomy. The EESC will provide input to the European Commission on how to create a dynamic, secure and inclusive ecosystem for advanced materials in Europe that ensures our continent's leadership in this area and supports the competitiveness of EU industries.
Adopted on 20/09/2023 - Bureau decision date: 11/07/2023
The Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform (‘STEP')will reinforce and leverage existing EU instruments to quickly deploy financial support to the benefit of business investments. The STEP will also allow directing existing funding towards technology fields that are crucial for Europe's leadership, thus contributing to a level playing field for investments throughout the Single Market.
Already for some time and especially since spring 2021, widespread and abrupt chip shortages have been dragging down industrial output across the EU. Sectors like automotive, consumer electronics, 5G technologies, industrial equipment, and medical devices are severely impacted. The drop comes despite a surge in manufacturers' order books and is seriously hampering the post-COVID economic recovery.
EESC opinion: Addressing structural shortages and strengthening strategic autonomy in the semiconductor ecosystem
Semiconductors are at the heart of strong geopolitical interests, giving countries the conditions to be able to act (militarily, economically and industrially) and to foster digital and ecological transitions. They are essential for strategic and industrial autonomy.
The upcoming French Presidency of the Council of the European Union asked the EESC to prepare an opinion on how the industrial ecosystems identified by the Commission will contribute to the EU's strategic autonomy and the well-being of its citizens.
EESC opinion: How will given industrial ecosystems contribute to the strategic autonomy of the EU and the wellbeing of Europeans?
The proposal builds on 2030 Digital Compass, in which the Commission laid out the vision for a successful digital transformation of Europe's economy and society by the end of the decade. It introduces now a robust governance framework to reach the digital targets in the form of a Path to the Digital Decade.
EESC opinion: Decision of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing the 2030 Policy Programme “Path to the Digital Decade”
The Communication is intended to update the previous Communication (COM (2020) 102 final) adopted on 10 March 2020 at the dawn of the COVID-19 crisis, taking into account the latest developments related in particular to the pandemic.
EESC opinion: Updating the new industrial strategy
