Informal Council of European Industry Ministers
The informal Council of European Industry Ministers will deal with two issues: the European Union’s new industrial policy and the future European Research and Innovation Plan.
Minister Jean-Claude Marcourt will chair the informal meeting of the Industry Ministers. It will start with a speech by Lakshmi Mittal, Chief Executive Officer of ArcelorMittal, on the globalization of the economy and its impact on value chains and the competitiveness of the European Union. The subjects for discussion by the Ministers and delegations will be the European Union’s new industrial policy and the future European Research and Innovation Plan.
These two Community initiatives form part of plans aimed at re-establishing the competitiveness of European industry and SMEs. They come under the new EU 2020 strategy for employment and growth. Minister Jean-Claude Marcourt intends to do everything possible to ensure that both policies actively support the efforts being made to emerge from the crisis and restore the competitiveness of the economy in the longer term.
The transformation of European industry as part of globalization is, indeed, seen as an opportunity and not a constraint. What will be at issue in the informal meeting of the Industry Ministers will be the measures to be taken at European Level to support the transition, to facilitate access by SMEs to external markets and to develop new forms of cooperation between the different policy levels.
Innovation will also be at the heart of the debates: The Ministers will exchange their viewpoints on the development of an integrated approach to innovation. They will also deal with the dissemination of innovation within the economic framework as a whole, and in particular to SMEs.
Where
WiFi, parking, telephone lines
