Prodi under fire from firms over EU’s industrial policy

Date: 23/01/03

By Peter Chapman

BUSINESS leaders turned on Commission President Romano Prodi and enterprise chief Erkki Liikanen this week over their efforts to kick-start industrial policy.

The comments came as the pair hosted a top-level meeting of industrialists and ministers to discuss a new green paper on industry.

Prodi and Liikanen said the EU must redouble its efforts to bolster productivity to catch up with the United States and counter the emerging threat from China.

But they came under fire from Polish and British business groups over their blueprint for better training of workers, more research and development spending and coordination of policy at European level.

Henryka Bochniarz, president of the Polish Confederation of Private Employers, said the EU should step back and let industry take more of a role without devising new ways to intervene in the market.

"Being an employer, I don't expect anything," said Bochniarz. "You have to do it yourself. The worst that can happen is when a government is saying they want to assist you. That is at least an orange light."

Meanwhile Digby Jones, director general of the Confederation of British Industry, accused Prodi of being too timid when he claimed the EU was not in a race with the US over productivity.

"Prodi said it is not a race. It is a race. He said there is no need for champions. There is a need for champions. We are not going to get winners unless there are losers."

Jones insisted that Europe must ensure it beats its competitors otherwise it would lose jobs to emerging economies such as China, adding that those jobs would "never return".

He said the "bureaucratic mass in Brussels" risked slowing down the most dynamic companies in the Union's future members rather than helping industry in the rest of the EU to match their levels.

"The red tape will dumb-down these companies," he added.

Prodi hit back at Jones' comments, claiming his words had been taken out of context.

"You misunderstand everything," he said. "I made my whole speech on the clear necessity for a challenge. I said it is much more intelligent than a race. It is a global challenge."

Earlier, UK Minister for Trade and Industry Patricia Hewitt attacked plans for a new chemicals testing regime, set to be unveiled by Liikanen and Margot Wallström, the environment commissioner.

The rules risked inducing "a large part of our chemical industry simply to move abroad," she said, adding "that will give no benefit to the European and world environment or our people".

Business leaders have criticised Commission President Romano Prodi and Enterprise Commissioner Erkki Liikanen over their efforts to kick-start industrial policy.