The Future of Industrial Policy and the European Single Market
The debate about industrial policy has risen to the top of the agenda in the EU and globally since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which compounded the supply-chain shocks caused by COVID-19 and further exacerbated the increasingly tense atmosphere in global relations and trade.
US-China tensions and protectionist tendencies across the world have prompted the need to identify, mitigate, and counter geopolitically motivated disruptions to critical trade links and value-chains, and for industry and government to work with one another to manage these changes and risks.
This paper will outline two broad trends which are impacting on the pharmaceutical industry both globally as well as within the Single Market and Ireland: a shift in the ethos of European health policy and a focus on strategic autonomy. It concludes with an assessment of the reframing of the concept of industrial policy in response to pressing challenges to the global competitiveness of European industry.
Industrial Policy - An EU Response to the Challenge of Competitiveness
On 9/10 February 2023, EU leaders will meet at a special European Council to discuss, amongst other priorities, the competitiveness of the EU economy in the context of stiff global competition from China and the US. In this Explainer, Alex Conway explores proposals for a set of measures to assist European industries in meeting these challenges. It focuses on the impact of the US Inflation Reduction Act on the pharmaceuticals, semiconductors and the automotive industries in the EU; it analyses the debate in the EU member states on the proposal for an Industrial Policy at EU level to solve the EU’s competitiveness conundrum; and highlights different Member State views on how to fund an EU industrial policy which would benefit all member states, without distorting the Single Market. It concludes with recommendations on the need to balance industrial policy measures with open trade policies to protect the Single Market while avoiding protectionism.