The EU presented its plan to restore the competitiveness of its companies
The European Union on Wednesday unveiled its long-awaited "compass for competitiveness," which seeks to "restart the engine" of innovation and enable companies to regain the ability to compete with firms from the United States and China.
With Donald Trump's attacks on the European Union still fresh in the minds of the public, Brussels has today proposed its new plan on how to improve its competitiveness. And, above all, how to prevent the United States and China from taking the lead in the world's economy.
Ursula von der Leyen has promised a drastic reduction in bureaucracy, which will allow more facilities for companies that aspire to remain in the European Union.
She also promises aid for investment with a possible new fund, which has no figures or details on how it will be financed. Even so, the needs are immense, Mario Draghi in his report that warned of the lack of European growth warned that the European Union needs 800 billion euros annually.
Innovation will also be in the spotlight, the Commission will propose a law on Artificial Intelligence in industry and facilitating its use in companies; The plan will also boost investment in renewable energy, and will also favour European companies that want to invest in key technologies such as raw materials, rather than foreign ones, which, although the proposal does not mention it, would affect China in particular.
"We need to restart the European innovation engine," said the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, when presenting the strategy that seeks to reconcile the reinforcement of competitiveness and the ambitious environmental goals of the bloc.
The European Commissioner for Industrial Strategy, Stéphane Séjourné, promised "a shock of simplification" in terms of bureaucracy, which however "will not affect environmental goals".
For the environmental organisation Friends of the Earth, "under the cover of 'simplification', this initiative will dismantle essential protections for European citizens, the environment and the climate".
Meanwhile, the head of the employers' organisation BusinessEurope, Markus Beyrer, said that the plan is "a clear signal that the EU is committed to strengthening its economy".
Brussels hopes that with this grand plan that will mark the next five years, the European Union will take off. If it fails, Draghi has already warned: the economic agony will be slow and without turning back.
