European industry - The strong backbone of the economy
Manufacturing industry is, and will remain, the growth engine of the European economy. Companies integrated into an EU-wide network are proving particularly competitive. These are the conclusions of a study conducted by the Cologne Institute for Economic Research (IW) presented in Brussels today.
KÖLN, Germany, Dec. 4, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- The study points out that manufacturing industry in the European Union accounts for more than three quarters of exported goods and some two thirds of expenditure on research and development. Because manufacturing is an important market for other sectors, each additional euro of demand for industrial goods leads to almost € 1.70 of additional output in the EU economy as a whole. A further result points in the same direction: Due to its dense web of links to other business sectors, the combined industry of EU member states achieves, at 24 per cent, an extremely high share of value added. Moreover, manufacturing in the European Union provides a total of 52 million jobs: 32 million directly and over 20 million indirectly.
"Manufacturing industry is the hub around which value-added chains in Europe are organised," says IW director Prof. Michael Hüther. According to Prof. Hüther the study, entitled "Manufacturing in Europe - A growth engine in the global economy," shows that there is more competitiveness in the EU precisely because of the closer cooperation between companies and the greater amount of joint economic activity between sectors and across borders.
EU industrial policy must take this more into account, Prof. Hüther argues, with special emphasis being given to the creation of open markets, improvement of trans-European infrastructure and the establishment of platforms where EU business can network more easily. "Additionally, Brussels must give industrial competitiveness considerably more priority in all policy fields."
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SOURCE Cologne Institute for Economic Research
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