France and Germany demand industry policy action

The EU needs a “more ambitious” industrial strategy to help manufacturing companies compete globally, the French and German governments have said.

Such a strategy should be “a top priority” for the European Commission after the European Parliamentary elections, the two governments said on 19 February in what they are calling a Franco-German Manifesto for a European Industrial Policy Fit for the 21st Century.

“At a time of increasingly fast changes globally, Europe must pool its strengths and be more united than ever,” the manifesto says. “We need much more strategic thinking than in the past.”