A strong industry will bring growth, employment and innovation to the EU

“A robust industrial platform in Europe is an indispensable basis to solve current European challenges. Stepping up the efforts to improve Europe’s industrial competitiveness is therefore absolutely essential”, Director General Markus J. Beyrer said at the high-level industrial conference “future perspective industry 2030” in Berlin on 18 February. He also stressed that industrial competitiveness must be the core of the EU policy agenda to bring industry’s weight in the EU GDP back to 20% by 2020, from around 15% today. The conference was organised by the German Ministry for Economic Affairs and the Alliance Future Industry. It welcomed German Vice-Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel, European Commissioner Šefčovič and BDI President Grillo as well as representatives from industry, politics, civil society and diplomacy. Photo © BMWi/Maurice Weiss