It’s the Real Economy, Stupid! Ten Points for a European Industrial Agenda

Against the backdrop of the economic and financial crisis and recent discussions on the need for growth, industrial policy seems to be back on the European public agenda. Echoing positions put forward by major European think tanks, Social Democratic leaders in Europe have challenged the idea of industrial policy as purely national issue, and called for a rethink of European industrial policy.

On one side of the Rhine, the head of the SPD parliamentary group in the Bundestag, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, firmly advocates the European growth agenda to include a European industrial strategy, on the other side, France’s President Hollande, who had put re-industrialisation at the heart of his election campaign, has established the first ever ministry for productive recovery, led by Arnaud Montebourg.