Europe’s love of legacy has created ‘decaying’ industries says MEP

Europe has the technologies at its fingertips to reinvigorate its industries – but it must first shake off a ‘legacy’ mindset.

That was the message in Brussels this week from Bruno Tobback, a member of the European Parliament for the Flemish social democratic party Vooruit.

“If we want to be competitive in Europe, it’s going to come through electrification,” he said at the European Energy and Industry Conference.

However, the audience had been told several times by different speakers that Europe’s electrification had stalled, and Tobback suggested the reason for this “is legacy”.

He said too many European industries were adopting a “sticking-with-what-we-have” approach to industrial processes, instead of choosing innovative ways to decarbonise.

And if Europe must look to the past, Tobback said, it should be to stimulate action for the future: “We built the first industrial revolution in Europe based on technology that we had here – the steam engine – and a resource that we had here – coal.

“Now, Europe has new technologies and dozens and dozens of existing, strong European companies that have a huge opportunity to build a new industrial revolution.

“Let’s make this into a European reindustrialisation project, because we have decaying industries that we are not going to save because of changes in geopolitics and changes in technology. However, we have growing industries that will offer opportunities to Europe.”

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To exploit these opportunities, Tobback said Europe would need a “no guts, no glory” approach: “ We're going to have to make choices and open the doors for these possibilities.”

Tiago Moreira da Silva, chief executive of Portuguese glass manufacturer BA Glass, backed Tobback’s call for action, but had a reality check on the drive for electrification.

He said even if they wanted to, only 15% of glass plants in Europe could electrify right now… because of sky-high electricity costs.

“We need more pragmatism,” he said. “Price is the main thing. We need to decouple electricity prices from gas prices.”

Europe’s industrial base was “under a recession” he said, with numerous plants closing down, and he stressed that “this loss is irreversible: when furnaces close, we lose know-how, specialised ecosystems, jobs and strategic supply chains forever”.