On 27 May, the Council  adopted conclusions on an “EU industrial policy strategy: A vision for 2030”. These conclusions echo recent calls from the European Council for an assertive long-term EU industrial policy strategy, and should be seen as the Council’s contribution to the Commission’s task of presenting such a comprehensive strategy by the end of 2019.

In its Conclusions, the Council 

• UNDERLINES the industrial importance of a fullyfledged, well-functioning and harmonised Single Market for secondary raw materials and circular products, cutting red-tape and legislative hurdles for internal shipment of secondary raw materials, exploiting the potential of bio-based raw materials, reducing the EU's dependency on imported raw materials, and thereby considerably lowering both its environmental and carbon footprint, while protecting human health and the environment; 
• UNDERLINES the potential of circularity to reduce the carbon footprint of the industry…;
• UNDERLINES the importance of the European industry's role in driving the European standardisation system and STRONGLY RECOMMENDS promoting the European standardisation system at international level;
• HIGHLIGHTS that clusters are key for the implementation of the EU industrial policy strategy as they enable strategic and structured collaboration along and across EU value chains; SUPPORTS European cluster policy initiatives as an important tool for promoting regional industrial modernisation supporting the growth of SMEs and small mid-caps, facilitating SMEs' access to global markets in strategic value chains, encouraging smart specialisation and strengthening cross-sectoral collaboration in order to facilitate structural change and the development of emerging industries;

Copy of the Coucil Conclusions are avaliable HERE.