Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-05-21-Speech-3-440"
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"en.20080521.29.3-440"2
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".
Mr President, Commissioner, let me begin by expressing my thanks to Romana Jordan Cizelj whose report truly touched on all aspects of a modern industrial policy and stressed the particular importance of creating the right basic conditions. I am very grateful to her. We cooperated well on this report.
In your explanatory statement, Mrs Jordan Cizelj, you say that, in general, industry in the EU is healthy and dynamic. Yes, we are even experiencing a renaissance of the so-called ‘old economy’. I myself come from a highly industrialised state. No one ever thought, for example, that the steel industry would suddenly boom again. We are a vibrant global force. The state of our industry is robust, and our flagship, the euro, has indeed steered us through the straits. Nevertheless, in spite of the sound industrial base and the resumption of investment activity in Europe, we note that the tide is turning. The speed of technological change is breathtaking. The question is how we should deal with this. Is this the right time to be conducting a mid-term review of our industrial policy?
Without raw materials and cheap labour – neither of which we possess – we shall come under competitive pressure that we shall be unable to withstand unless we are creative. For this reason, I wish to congratulate the Commission first of all for having designated 2009 as the Year of Creativity and Innovation. Yet what does that mean? Innovation, as we know, must be far more effective in turning knowledge into wealth. We have established the EIT, the European Institute of Innovation and Technology – or, to be more precise, it will soon be established – and that is a good basis. Yet the creative people in the world are not only leaving Europe, they are now even quitting the United States. You should read the book by Richard Florida in which he reflects on this situation. What is happening with regard to the creative class in this world? Creative people will settle in places that fulfil three criteria, which Florida calls the three Ts – technology, talent and tolerance. The question is whether these three Ts are present in sufficient abundance here in Europe. I believe we have laid good foundations with the Seventh Framework Programme and the EIT, but that is not enough. We must do a lot more. The three Ts need more money. The clusters are a sound initiative. It is essential, however, to select the right specialisations; the cluster initiative must be coherent, as must the whole industrial policy of the EU, and it must be appropriate and balanced.
In the case of the car industry, of course, we see some lack of consistency; we see that, in certain respects, we are overtightening the screw. That has to do with our policy on climate change, which is increasingly becoming a fanatical moral crusade, subjecting Europe to a form of lifestyle regulation that sometimes goes over the top. How else can it happen that CO
emissions from exhaust pipes are penalised 24 times more heavily than emissions from chimneys? We must ensure, Commissioner Verheugen, that the policy of the EU is coherent. We cannot be the lead market and possess an 80% share of global trade in premium cars and yet pull the rug from under our own feet in this very part of the market. We must take care to act consistently."@en1
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