Siemens Policy Paper for the future of European hitech industry and thus a stronger Europe.

by michael rogers

Siemens is a Germany-based conglomerate company which specializes in engineering, electronics, and medical electrical devices. It was originally founded in 1847 as an electrical engineering company that produced electrical telegraphs, and eventually broadened its scope to include telegraph lines eventually constructing the world’s first electric streetcar line. Throughout the 20th and early 21st centuries, Siemens acquired and combined with various other companies to increase its capabilities, expanding its specializations into the various sectors in which it operates today, including industry, energy, healthcare, and infrastructure and cities.

Siemens turnover per year is the same as the whole H2020 Programme over 7 years, it employs just under 400,000 people world wide and leads in many fields of technology. It has a strong strategy reputation and has survived the ravages that have decimated much of the European high tech scene. When they write, it is worth reading ...

 

Siemens’ positions for a stronger Europe Europe is at a crossroads, and its newly elected political representatives face a variety of fundamental challenges. Leadership and determination are needed to maintain and strengthen Europe’s economic significance in the world. Industry and infrastructure remain Europe’s backbone for sustainable, inclusive growth and secure employment. The new and challenging dimension of global competition – which, more than ever, calls into question an international level playing field – makes it essential for a good European future that politicians and businesses stand up for multilateralism and reciprocity persistently, consistently, and with one voice. However, in order to prevent Europe from falling behind international competition, we now need a forward-looking, effective action program for Europe’s industry. The priorities of such a program must be to “Preserve, Promote, Invest” in five fields that are equally important for Europe.

1. A sustainable program to drive the energy transition and to fight climate change. We need complete sector integration without delay as well as substantial investments in Power-to-X, storage and grid-edge technologies. This offers the industry completely new and affordable ways of reducing CO2 and thereby achieving the ambitious EU climate goals. New climate-friendly technologies create new jobs in Europe and promising new markets worldwide.

2. A leading position in future technologies in the digital age. This requires substantial investment – private as well as public – in technological fields such as industrial artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and critical infrastructure. Europe will only remain an attractive business location if it deploys future technologies mainly for industrial application.

3. Greater competitiveness for its companies by creating an appropriate legal framework. This includes modernizing European competition law and adapting state aid rules, especially to ensure that future technologies are rapidly implemented in day-to-day business practice and application. Full account must be taken of market conditions and dynamics and of the massive changes in framework conditions resulting from digitalization.

4. Coordinated and determined external economic policy and diplomacy that actively promote European business. The aim must be to promote a level playing field for international competition. At the same time, European companies need their interests to be proactively represented by EU institutions in their export efforts. Only if Europe, as a strong global player, supports its companies with one voice can disadvantages resulting from rapidly increasing geopolitical and geoeconomic interventions be contained.

5. A Europe-wide education campaign for its citizens and workforce to fill the challenging gap in new skills that people need to shape the digital and highly interconnected world. European Member States need a joint master plan for education and dual vocational training. Future technologies must be practiced and learned in a comprehensive way. State-aid rules should be adapted, and investment incentives should be created with a specific focus on education and training activities.

This action program for the European industry will make a significant contribution to a stronger Europe. Through it, we must work together to shape Europe’s future in a world where digitalization and globalization are changing the business environment in unprecedented ways. Siemens is committed to this goal and will actively contribute toward achieving it.

The full 6 pager is to be found at https://g8fip1kplyr33r3krz5b97d1-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Siemens-EU-Industrial-Policy-EN_original.pdf?msg_pos=1