CECIMO commits to contribute to a new European industrial policy
Brussels, 2 March 2017. Mr Luigi Galdabini, President of CECIMO and Managing Director of Galdabini SPA, was one of the renowned panellist at the first European Industry Day that took place on 28 February 2017. He supported SMEs’ view and reported the challenges that the industry faces accessing new technologies. This intervention was in line with the “Joint Declaration for an ambitious EU industrial strategy” signed by 125 European manufacturing associations, which calls the European Institutions to define and implement an ambitious European industrial strategy.
CECIMO voices the needs of manufacturing SMEs in the First European Industry Day
CECIMO welcomes the first European Industry Day that was organized by the European Commission and saw the participation of high-level policy makers, including Commission Vice-President Jyrki Katainen, and Commissioners El?bieta Bie?kowska and Carlos Moedas. The event brought together hundreds of stakeholders from across Europe to discuss issues of high importance for the European industrialists.
The European machine tool industry was represented by Mr Luigi Galdabini, President of CECIMO and Managing Director of Galdabini SPA in the European Industry Day. As debater in the high-level panel on SME access to technologies, Mr Galdabini highlighted that cross-border collaboration between machine tool builders and technology centres is essential, but severe bottlenecks, hampering the competitiveness of industry, exist. “If European machine tool builders want to keep up with market trends, they need to be increasingly agile, develop new solutions that match the changing needs of machine tool users, and focus on incremental innovation, offering continuously improved goods and services to customers. Consequently, technology centres spread across Europe can join forces with manufacturing SMEs and help them in responding to these evolving demands. At strategic level, MT builders need more policy instruments that foster the link between research and business, and they also call for incentives, which underpin cross-border collaboration in Europe and support the internationalisation of manufacturing SMEs” added Mr Galdabini.
Joint Declaration for an ambitious EU industrial strategy
CECIMO and other 124 European manufacturing associations launched a week ago a Joint-Declaration that calls the European Commission, the European Parliament and the Competitiveness Council to define and implement an ambitious and coordinated European industrial strategy. “CECIMO finds very positive that the European Commission organises the first European Industry Day. Nevertheless, to safeguard the world leadership of European manufacturers and jobs in Europe, the Commission needs to follow up what stakeholders have been voicing and to come up with a comprehensive action plan focusing on the strengths of our businesses” stated Mr Filip Geerts, CECIMO Director General.
The Joint-Declaration for an ambitious EU industrial strategy highlights that, while competitors from across the world puts industry at the very top of their political agendas, develop and implement well-thought strategies, the EU falls behind its industrial policy targets. “There has been no better time to reaffirm Europe’s commitment to manufacturing, innovation and jobs. European associations representing 125 manufacturing sectors are ready to offer their cooperation to the European Institutions” points out Mr Geerts.
About CECIMO
CECIMO is the European Association of the Machine Tool Industries. We bring together 15 national associations of machine tool builders, which represent approximately 1500 industrial enterprises in Europe (EU + EFTA + Turkey), over 80% of which are SMEs. CECIMO covers 98% of the total machine tool production in Europe and about 39% worldwide. It accounts for more than 150,000 employees and a turnover of nearly €24 billion in 2015. More than three quarters of CECIMO production is shipped abroad, whereas half of it is exported outside Europe. For more information, visit www.cecimo.eu
For further media enquiries:
Filip Geerts, Director General
Tel +32 2 502 70 90 / Fax +32 2 502 60 82
filip.geerts@cecimo.eu