The European Council has called on the European Commission to come up with an industrial policy strategy in time for its meeting in Spring 2018.

The strategy should present medium to long-term strategic objectives for industry, and should be accompanied by an action plan developed in close consultation with member states.

One of the points raised in the Council’s statement was the need to streamline legislation and remove unnecessary, discriminatory or disproportionate regulatory barriers.

BusinessEurope called the conclusions “a strong political signal that the status quo is not trusted to lead to a revival of the EU’s industrial base”.

“Despite more positive headline economic figures, EU industry still faces severe handicaps to perform on global markets. The EU’s share in global manufacturing exports declined by nearly 7 per cent since 2004, by far the sharpest loss of global trade in manufactured goods,” it said.

“Today’s conclusions of the Competitiveness Council are an important milestone. It shows how serious member states are on the importance for the EU to re-launch an industrial strategy. We are extremely grateful that the Maltese EU presidency put so much effort into this process. Now we expect a determined follow-up from the European Commission,” director general Markus J. Beyrer said.