- “Thank you again. Um, I will start by the reference to technological neutrality. Many of you mentioned now and in the previous round, I think it's very clear we say it in the in the beginning of a text as a principle for regulation. And also with regard to the automotive sector, that this this element of neutrality with regard to the means and the technologies to achieve our objectives, must be a foundational principle, very simply because we don't know yet how many, which will be the technologies most efficient to bring us, to bring us to, uh, to the objective. And there is a very clear also message, uh, on the section on decarbonisation, on the automotive sector. Many of you mentioned, again, the simplification of the administrative burden we had for long, as you know, a methodological debate or what is administrative burden, what is a reporting burden in particular? Really, this is a category that is a bit ill defined and vague, and there are questions whether notification for state aid, for instance, enters or not. So what the clear message we give in the compass is to go beyond this vagueness. And we clearly take a position to expand the notion from purely reporting burden to administrative burden, which is a well established category measured by Eurostat. It was assessed in a previous report by Stoiber. And we have a quantification also of what is the baseline against which we will assess the reduction of administrative burden, which is assessed in the report as €150,000,000,000 million per year.”
Road transport environmental policy · State Aid
- “President. Good morning, everyone, and thanks to the Committee for the warm welcome and for hosting this debate on the competitiveness and on the Competitiveness Compass. I'm delighted to be back in this committee where I recognize many familiar faces, and I am happy to pay tribute to the leadership, as some of you. Mr.. Mr.. Mr.. Mr.. Mr.. Gonzalez casares and Mr.. Bhatia had in the response to the energy crisis over the last the last last Monday. I think you are all keenly aware of the concerns among industry and broadly among the citizens. For the economic outlook and the worsening economic situation. And I will not dwell on that, but is in that context and in response also to this raising concerns and worsening mood around Europe. The president announced first in this Parliament during her confirmation hearing and then in some of her recent interventions, her intention to take competitiveness as the number one mission of the Commission in the next mandate, and to present as a first act of the new Commission as the first formal document of the Commission, a compass to set the narrative, the tone and the direction of the work for the next five years earlier on one year ago, when it was already clear that the precursor signs of what we are living through in these days were where the president had asked Mario Draghi to prepare a report on the future of competitiveness Europe. And as many of you know, we had over decades, several reports of all sorts on the economic situation in Europe. We had a number of economic strategies.”
EU Single Market harmonisation · Competitiveness matrix
- “And one of the worst enemies of all. This report has always been the risk of ending up in a in a drawer place somewhere or on a bookshelf. In this case, the Draghi report has managed to create a very large attention to all its stark analysis and all its concrete recommendations, but also to bring a large convergence around the direction it sets for action for the for the Union. And so the president has decided that this was an opportunity differently from the past to draw on this analysis and turn it into action. And this is the essence of the Competitiveness Competitiveness compass. I will very quickly highlight before your intervention five key messages that come out from the document that we presented yesterday. The first is on the urgency and the gravity of the situation. What emerges from the Drudge Report? And I think in a more diplomatic terms, but also from the competitiveness compass, is very clearly that Europe is nearing, is getting very close to a moment of reckoning where a number of trends that have started two decades ago of very gradual, slow but inexorable divergence in terms of economic trajectory from other major economies and in particular from the United States, are reaching a breaking point. And, uh, this trajectory has started broadly, uh, two decades ago, at the time of the internet shock of the economy. And since then, we see on all important parameters, from GDP to personal income to productivity, that this trajectory is, is further widening. And this has, uh, has been reflected in, uh, driving the European industrial and manufacturing sector in, in sectors and in areas where they have a limited capacity of innovation because they are farther from the innovation frontier.”
EU Single Market harmonisation · Competitiveness matrix
- “And we will use the lever of public procurement. This all together with diversification one point and Mr. Ehler and some of you as well raise is are you doing enough for the single market. It now. It's true that it's one of enabler and is we had to write something in 20 pages, 24 pages. But it is a central dimension for one reason that many of you have picked up. If you focus on industrial policies or a certain sort of vertical policy in AI, in, in clean technologies, uh, in defense space, you need if you want to have maximum impact to accompany them to a horizontal removal of barriers in the single market. Many of you may rightly the point of energy integration to reduce the prices. There is another point that some of you made the 28th regime, the removal of barriers for circulation of services, for the circulation of labor. It's so important for innovative companies to be able to create a cluster of talents, picking up the talents everywhere in Europe. And all of these we are produced in the same day yesterday, an annual report on companies and the single market.”
State Aid · EU Single Market harmonisation
- “So we need to work on a productivity with shared gains for everyone. Not just, of course, for the high flyers. For the Flyers, too much regulation. It's difficult to do a modern industrial and competitiveness policy without regulation. What we see clearly is that what we do is not to bring new constraining frameworks for industry. We will try to be as accommodating as possible. The type of regulation is there is either what you need in a nascent sector to give them the elements, the incentives, the framework of certainty to start because no one wants to start and then be, uh, overtaken by a regulation that, uh, prohibits what you are starting to do. And the second thing to remove, in many cases, 27 other pieces of legislation that can create fragmentation in the single market, with one single set in the area of space in the area of the capital markets, is a typical case more harmonised supervision, more common products. European level. The 28 regime. So some of these I will qualify it as negative legislation. So legislation that has a net effect of creating a better environment for for industrial. For industrial policy and our strategy. Another point that many of you have made. Protection. We need a mix of three things. We need active industrial policy. We need single market, and we need de-risking foreign economic policies. Many of you mentioned the critical medicines and other sectors that are vital.”
EU Single Market harmonisation
- “Where else? We have the comparative advantages to do it. Many of you said, how do you do that? You need a comprehensive strategy to do an AI strategy, you have to look at infrastructure, the cost of energy to power them, the you need to look at where the skills pool are all this together. And this is the importance of this competitiveness tool that we have is not to add another layer of layer of bureaucracy is to have a sort of blueprint, together with stakeholders and member states, to decide in strategic sectors who does what, against which common objectives, and pulling together EU and national funds. Just don't forget that in research and innovation, 93% of the public support in Europe comes from member states. So a policy for areas that require innovation need to bring together member states stakeholders and, uh, and the EU and the EU level. Demographics are very important because we have a shrinking working age population. So we have a reference to that, and we address that mainly through the issue of quality jobs. Also to increase the labour input, older workers, underrepresented categories, women, people with disabilities, all of that will be part of a union, of a union, uh, of of skills. But there is also a also a reason why innovation productivity is important. If we hope that in the future our increase in productivity will come by expanding the workforce, we will not achieve the result.”
Artificial Intelligence · Competitiveness matrix
- “We focus on organizational changes and efficiency. On flexibility of the market is a different thing, is more complex, but is where the gains are. If you look at the productivity of the large tech companies in the United States, compared to our leading companies in Europe is 40% higher. And this trickles down across the across the entire economy. Productivity in Europe in 20 in 1995 was 95% of US productivity. Then comes in the internet revolution. Today we are at 78% of productivity in the United States. That's where the gap comes and where I think all the closing, the innovation gap and part of the other measures are there. What is the relationship with sovereign sovereignty, though? It is a clear point. If you are not able to do that and to become more competitive, we risk not having the resources to defend our interests across the world. We will not have money to invest in In defense. We will not have the resources to finance our welfare state. So this is the point we make about if Europe is not becoming competitive, it risks becoming the weak element in a competition of giants. There is also another element that comes in is that we show that by relying over the last 20 years on external demand, on international trade and long global supply chains, where we were seeking the most efficient, low cost input for our production and manufacturing in Europe, we have exposed ourselves to a number of vulnerabilities.”
EU Single Market harmonisation · Competitiveness matrix
- “Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Very sharp and very well focused questions. I'll try to be as telegraphic as I can. The first point made by by Mr. Eller and by some other of you is how clear is the notion of competitiveness on which you're building your report, and is need not confused with other concepts like growth, sovereignty, etc.? Now companions indeed is a relative concept. It is doing things better, faster, with less input than others in competitors in the rest of the world. And what the Draghi report very clearly shows, and we build on this, is that the problem for Europe is indeed lying in its slow rate of productivity growth, which is mainly led and driven by a lack of innovation. So it is an innovation driven productivity deficit. And this is where we want to intervene. And a large part of the measures in the compass are aiming at that. So we need to restart a circle of innovation, of knowledge, of capital and science, to bring back innovation to our companies, and also for the traditional sectors, which you know very well, the automotive and others are the largest investors in industrial innovation in Europe and also diffusion across the economy. Why this is different. And this I address the point made by the last speaker, Mr. Samo, and by others of you is different from the notion that was in other documents that we had the Europe 2020 and others in the past, because very clearly, driving innovation led productivity is different than saying we squeeze the labour costs.”
EU Single Market harmonisation · Competitiveness matrix
- “They have less capacity to integrate, uh, breakthrough innovation. And there is less economic dynamism. There's less capacity to produce new startups, new young, vibrant companies challenging incumbents and bringing innovation. So unless we act and we break with slow, gradual, but inexorable trajectory of deceleration of productivity and growth. We will not be able to arrest this trend, and we will condemn to go in a slow lane in the future economic global competition. The second message is that restoring Europe's economic strength is not. Is not a matter of trade offs. It is more a matter of better aligning and coordinating our policy. We do not need to sacrifice other objectives by putting as a number one. The point is, especially in the area of decarbonisation and and competitiveness, is to bring together different policies and coordinate our objectives on climate and energy policy with trade, industrial and competition policies. The third message is that there are three factors that have led Europe to lead into this slow growth trajectory, and these are the factors on which we need to intervene. The first was being trapped in this vicious circle of low innovation. And this we address in the chapter on closing the innovation gap. The second is the high cost of energy as a result of a broader process of clean energy transition and decarbonization. And we address it in the second pillar on a joint roadmap for decarbonization and competitiveness.”
Energy (green transition) · EU Single Market harmonisation · EU Competition policy
- “And the third is an evolution of the international trade, where it is more fractured, more divided in geopolitical blocs. And this creates challenges and risks for our system of global supply chains, and also a risk that relying too much on external demand in this context, rather than on internal demand, will be challenging. The fourth point I wanted to make is that the compass is signaling a number of policy shifts. I'm sure you will ask question on that, but it's also insisting on the need for a change of mindset. And this the way we work together as a European Union. The first is on simplification, and the second one is on better coordination between the EU and the national level industrial policies, where we propose a coordination tool. The fifth message and the last message, I promise, is the financing strategy to support a competitiveness policy. This is a framing document is not a proposal for the MFF. You know that this is due in the coming months. And there is also an orientation debate in the European Council. But it's very clear that without massive investments, everything that we say in this strategy will not happen. What this document, the new elements this document gives, is first to propose a number of priority areas or strategic sectors where we think we should focus investments and industrial policies. And this again to create a consensus on what to fund. The second is to point very clearly to the importance of mobilising private capital through a savings and investment union to direct massive savings existing in Europe towards efficient investment across the continent, rather than migrating towards the United States as it happens today.”
EU Single Market harmonisation · Competitiveness matrix
- “And the third is that we will only persuade member states to give us more flexibility and more resources in the next budget. If we show, as we try to do that, this budget can be used taking more risks to crowd in private fund. And this is all the part of you invest EIB, partnership, etc. but also refocused and be more efficient for every euro we use through the proposal of a competitiveness fund. These are the elements that I wanted to to set out. There is one, I think, subliminal message there. It is that restoring productivity. Restoring the companies of Europe does not only depend for macro trends that are outside our control. The demographics, the legacy of past crisis is also depends on one variable that is in our hands, which is productivity. And this needs targeted industrial policy, single market deepening and very focused investment investment support. So the last my last word is that very clearly Europe has a number of assets. In this moment. There is a growing pessimism. But we have all the talents, capital size that we need for the competing successfully if we use them in a different way. Simplifying what we do, refocusing our budget, accelerating our policy, coordinating what we do between the EU and the member States, and aligning better our principles and policies around the North. Star of competence. Thank you very much, Mr. President. I'm available for your questions.”
EU Single Market harmonisation · Size of EU budget
- “How much you will lose of your of your money? The last point, uh, one of you. I'm trying to find the name mentioned, the speed. This is a strategy, so you will find only the headlines. In some cases. We are still in the drawing board in designing the initiatives, and I can't say too much at this stage. So there is it's a productivity can be improved more in the medium term. There are short term tools like simplification. But how we will control that. This strategy does not unravel because in every single piece of legislation we announce, each will do each DG and each commissioners will do their own policy and we are back to square one. We have enhanced our coordination structure within the Commission, the Secretary General, under the direct supervision of the president, to have a cabin in order to check exactly that. The speed and the quality of the documents match our competitiveness. Strategic strategic commitment. You ask also about the gap filling. I think we don't ask ourselves now, what if we fail because we don't think we are going to fail, we are going to make it. But I have to say, and here I conclude, if we lose speed and we are not delivering on what we have committed to, I have the impression that this committee will remind the president and the Commissioner very strongly, and they will reignite their effort. Thank you very much.”
EU Single Market harmonisation · Competitiveness matrix
- “What we say is that we need to build firewalls. We need to build, in many cases, our ability to preserve and protect capacity within the European Union. But we don't have, I would say, a doctrine of where and when to intervene. But it's very clear that we don't have the budget or the means to do a policy for every sector. What we have to do is an analysis where we have a technological advantage, where we can, or it's vital to preserve a capacity in the European Union, where there is an uneven level playing field at international level in both cases. These market failures can be addressed by, uh, by industrial policy with the permission of the chair. Two final. Uh, two final. Uh, points to not to abuse of your of your time. Uh, one environmental policy. Very important. I don't want not to address this point. It is a key dimension of resource efficiency. You rightly stress it. We, uh, flag in particular the Circular Economy Act and circularity will be extremely important for resource scarce Europe, but also water scarcity as a point. And we have, I think, a water strategy. If I am correct, and environment comes in also as adaptation to climate and weather and other risks, because imagine if you invest in areas that are not prepared to withstand weather or man made catastrophes.”
EU policy on screening foreign investment in strategic sectors and critical infrastructure · Circular economy
- “There are a number of indicators where the situation is not improving at all. It's even going down. So it is an absolute fundamental level together with the industrial policies and we think simplification and coordination. I have one minute. Um, I uh, wanted to address also the risk of deregulation, which is prominent in many of you. What we say very clearly is that we are not going to challenge the objectives agreed and also agreed by the legislation adopted by this Parliament. But we have a number of acts starting from taxonomy, the Corporate Social Responsibility Directive, the corporate uh reporting uh due diligence directive, where we have feedback from the sector that a number of reporting and administrative obligations. There are simply not applicable there trying other compliance strategies and this is on the ground test doesn't work. So what we will do is simply to try to to simplify, to get in a more economical way, uh, the implementation or the achievement of the same objectives, uh, by getting rid of a number of things for excessive precaution or for, uh, a reasonable, uh, guess at the time, now, with the benefit of some experience, seem outside the margin of tolerable error. Uh, I just on simplification. There was just one last point that I wanted to to make, but I will make it in the, in the, in the next, uh. Thank you.”
Due diligence in supply chains (environmental and human rights) · Green Taxonomy
- “So our commitment now to reduce administrative burden for SMEs by for every companies by 25% and for SMEs by 35%, must be measured Against this notion, expanded notion of administrative burden, and we give a quantification. Of at least 37.5 million, uh, euro. The second element that many of you have highlighted. Is, uh, the reference to the importance of territorial diversity, the importance of cohesion, the importance of having all the regions in Europe part of this effort. Indeed, this is part of our thinking. Every time you think of more economic dynamism, more opening of markets. This has an impact on territories. There is always a dislocation. There is always a transform economic transformation that affects the communities. There are two references in the text on upward economic convergence and on on cohesion, and we will be very attentive to that, I think, in the previous round. Mr. A.K., Mr. van Dijk mentioned also another of you the importance of diversity. This is a strategy that tries not to have a one size fits all, but to build on the comparative assets and advantages that each region in Europe has. When we have, for instance, the policy and we talk about supercomputers, the idea is to develop a strategy where we decide which one we have already. Top three, uh, supercomputing centers in Europe, in Finland, in Italy and in Spain.”
Cohesion and rural funding