The EU Industrial Strategy Update Set to Strengthen the Resilience of the Single Market

Submitted by Imogen Allan on 07 May 2021

The European Commission have updated the EU Industrial Strategy to respond to the lessons learned from the Coronavirus outbreak and help drive the transformation to a more sustainable, digital, resilient and globally competitive economy.

The updated Strategy reaffirms the priorities set out in the March 2020 communication, published the day before the WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic. The Strategy covers three main strands:

  • Single Market Resilience
  • Green and Digital transitions
  • Europe’s Strategic Dependencies

Lessons learned from the COVID-19 crisis

The COVID-19 crisis has strongly affected the EU economy, impacting industrial ecosystems and demonstrating the critical role of a globally integrated and well-functioning Single Market.

The key issues highlighted in the updated Strategy are:

  • Borders restricting free movement of people, goods and services
  • Interrupted global supply chains affecting availability of essential products 
  • Disruption of demand

To address these issues, the updated Industrial Strategy proposes new measures focusing on:

  • Strengthening of the resilience of the Single Market
  • Supporting Europe’s Open Strategic Autonomy through dealing with dependencies
  • Supporting the business case for the twin transitions

Resilience of the Single Market

The Single Market has been greatly affected and tested during the COVID-19 outbreak, with many businesses struggling due to supply chain disruptions.  

To address these issues, the Commission has proposed: 

  • The Single Market Emergency Instrument - ensure the free movement of goods and services in case of future crises.
  • Deepening the Single Market - produce standards for key business services as well as strengthening the digitalisation of market surveillance and other targeted measures for SMEs.
  • Monitoring the Single Market - an annual analysis of the Single Market across 14 industrial ecosystems.

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Strengthening EU’s open strategic autonomy

The updated Strategy highlights the need to further improve the open strategic autonomy across key areas.

The Commission is proposing:

  • Diversified international supply chains.
  • Support for new Industrial Alliances
  • Monitoring of strategic dependencies

Accelerating the twin transitions

The Commission highlights the importance of accelerating the twin green and digital transitions by proposing:

  • Co-creating transition pathways in partnership with industry and stakeholders.
  • Multi-country projects supporting Member States to maximise investments under the Recovery and Resilience Facility.
  • Extensive review of the EU competition rules to make sure that they are fit for the transition.
  • Analysis of the steel sector to address challenges being faced by the sector.
  • Horizon Europe Partnerships providing funding for research and innovation on low-carbon technology and processes.
  • Abundant, accessible and affordable decarbonised energy to accelerate investments for renewables, grids and address barriers.

Read the full press release on the updated EU Industrial Strategy here.

Find Q&As here.

For more information visit the Commission’s website.

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