Breaking: `The EU is Finally Getting Its Act Together’

 Some robust commentary from the VDMA on the EU single market strategy, which now seems to have a sense of urgency now that billions of euros are being offered to Ukraine to continue the war there.

That political showboating means a sudden scale-up in industrial production of weapons, systems and parts, as the US cannot be relied upon to support an open-ended conflict as regards war materiel. From drones to missiles, mine detectors to shells, the EU needs to ramp up production within its internal borders if it is serious about defending them. More coal, more steel and metal alloy production, more oil from Norway and the Middle East. Huge water and electricity usage to boost manufacturers of all types and specialties.

How this surge in extracted and imported raw resources, plus sudden rise in carbon consumption fits in with the current EU Net Zero targets is something of a mystery. Perhaps necessity is both the mother of invention and expediency.

Here’s the word;

Initial details of the EU single market strategy, which is to be published at the end of May, have now become known. VDMA Executive Director Thilo Brodtmann comments:

• “The EU Commission now seems to be serious about tackling the most pressing problems of the European single market. The points on the EU single market strategy that have now become known in advance sound promising. This applies in particular to the “think-small first” approach, the increased focus on small and medium-sized enterprises, which benefit enormously from the single market but have also had to struggle with huge hurdles.”
• “European machinery and equipment manufacturing bases its global economic success on a strong and functioning EU single market. We have therefore long been calling for the internal market to be standardized and deepened. The fact that the EU Commission is now finally getting its act together is right and important.”
• “The EU Commission is finally tackling the bureaucratic problems surrounding the posting of workers, which is a major headache for our companies when it comes to cross-border work assignments. Harmonized and uniform rules throughout the EU must be the standard!”
• “The issue of market surveillance must be addressed as part of the single market strategy. Even harmonized and streamlined rules become a boomerang for competitiveness if they are unfairly undermined by suppliers from third countries.”