The association of the large industries of the European Union warns about the growing attraction that the United States is exerting on them in contrast to the European Union. The so-called European Round Table for Industry (European Round Table) has published a survey that ensures that 57% of large European companies consider moving or displacing investments to the United States in the next two years, after the introduction of the so-called Law of Reducing Inflation of the Joe Biden Administration, which implies a colossal package of aid with administrative agility.
34% maintain that they do not plan to make that move and 9% have not yet decided. On the other hand, no less than 80% maintain that European competitiveness is weakening.
Martin Brudermüller, Chairman of the ERT Committee for Competitiveness and Innovation and Chairman of the BASF Board of Management, gives this explanation in the association’s statement: “The results of this latest survey put Europe’s competitiveness in the spotlight. The conclusions are clear and urgent proof that Europe’s future as a leading industrial base is in jeopardy.”
In his opinion, “geopolitical tensions are having enormous repercussions, and in Europe we are in the midst of them. So all of us – companies and politicians alike – have to fight even more to maintain our competitive advantage and our leadership in innovation. Our people, our ideas and our Single Market are our natural assets – but they need better conditions to compete globally.”
According to the statement, “the results are alarming for Europe’s economic competitiveness. More than 80% of CEOs believe that Europe’s competitiveness as a base for industry is weakening. And this perception also helps explain why nearly 60 % of them plan to move investments and/or operations from Europe to North America in the next two years.”
A delegation from the ERT visited the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, last March to ask him to place competitiveness among the priorities of the Spanish presidency of the EU after also doing so before his Swedish counterpart.
The president of Telefónica, José María Álvarez Pallete, that of Iberdrola, Ignacio Galán, that of Ferrovial, Rafael del Pino or the CEO of Inditex, Óscar García Maceiras, are members of this influential continental industrial association.
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