The Commission updates today the EU Industrial Strategy to guarantee that its goals take into account the pandemic crisis while also promoting the transition to a more sustainable, digital, resilient and competitive economy.

The Strategy puts forward new measures to reinforce the resilience of the Single Market, particularly in periods of crisis. It addresses the need to better understand the EU’s dependencies in key areas and presents a set of tools to handle them, as well as new actions to speed up the green and digital transitions. The updated Strategy also aims to determine and control the main indicators of the competitiveness of the EU economy: single market integration, productivity growth, international competitiveness, public and private investment, and R&D investment.

The updated Industrial Strategy focuses on:

Strengthening Single Market resilience - it became clear, with the pandemic, that the free movement of persons, goods, services and capital are essential in the Single Market. Therefore, the Commission will:

• Propose a Single Market Emergency Instrument
• Fully implement the Services Directive to make sure that Member States follow their obligations
• Boost market surveillance of products
• Mobilise a considerable investment to support SMEs

Dealing with the EU's strategic dependencies - the pandemic highlighted the need to analyse the EU’s dependencies on certain imports and exports. The Commission, therefore:

• Performed a 'bottom-up' analysis on trade data, which shows dependencies in the area of advanced technologies
• Presents the results of six in-depth reviews on raw materials, batteries, active pharmaceutical ingredients, hydrogen, semiconductors, and cloud and edge technologies
• Will launch a second stage of reviews of potential dependencies in key areas, and develop a monitoring system through the Commission's Observatory of Critical Technologies;
• Works towards diversifying international supply chains and pursuing international partnerships to increase preparedness;
• Supports new industrial alliances in strategic areas

Accelerating the twin transitions - the Commission outlines new measures to support the green and digital transitions, by:

• Co-creating transition pathways in partnership with industry, public authorities, social partners and other stakeholders
• Providing a coherent regulatory framework to achieve the objectives of Europe's Digital Decade and the ‘Fit for 55' ambitions
• Providing SMEs with Sustainability Advisors and supporting data-driven business models
• Investing to upskill and reskill

Image © European Commission, 2021