Last Thursday, 28^th February, Federmeccanica presented in Rome the document with ten priorities of intervention for the next European Parliament, identified by work employers, mechanical industry workers, steel and ICT industry. These 10 challenges were elaborated during 2018 by CEEMET, the association Federmeccanica belongs to and which in Europe represents 200.000 engeneering industries providing 17 million direct jobs and 35 million indirect jobs.

These challenges deal with the main themes for the realization of a sustainable Europe and are coherent with the next European program for the years 2021-2027.

The document links to future achievement of 2030 EU goals and to the capability of improving company competition and to create new jobs; it talks about a strong Europe where citizens, workers, industry and institutions are linked together by trust, which is the key to deal with current challenges and aiming for new ideas to become new opportunities and projects.

Given that in the last years the Industry & technology sector created 1.25 million new quality jobs, as reported by CEEMET, while on the one hand it is true that digitalization follows the technological progress, on the other hand it is also true that human resource is and still will be the core of future development.

Let’s now touch on the main points and themes at the basis of the statement of intents and principles directed to the next European parliamentarians by the engineering and technological industry:

Debate about the future of Europe and its relationship with industry. For its future, it has been requested of Europe to recognize the industry as the main subject capable of creating welfare and prosperity for the territory.

Better regulation. Regulation based on reality creates certainty and job places. Conversely, regulations based only on political agreement cause uncertainty and variability.

1. International competition. A healthy industry is better able to collaborate with unions and greater society, as already stated in the Declaration of Rome in 2017.
2. Industrial digital area. In order to imagine an Eu which achieves all predetermined goals, efficiency and efficacy are required in different European and national actions in the field of digitalization. It is necessary that the production and the commercialization of ideas are supported by the EU budget.
3. Skills skills skills. Future skills requirement will continue to change massively. Therefore, it is a priority for each country to have teachers with strong digital skills, able to provide students with digital tools. The European budget 2021-2027 spends a large amount of resources for the creation of digital skills and industry supports strong co-operation between their selves and educational institutions.
4. Job market agility. New kinds of jobs blend with new concepts about job organization. The creation of job places and the adoption of digitalization need space for experimentation. This is the main point for the creation of excellent job places.
5. Society makes all the difference. Those closest to employers and employees know better what the themes that must be discussed are. The autonomy and the respect of the subsidiariety in Europe are fundamental points for the sustainable occupation.
6. Technological and industrial investments. The creation of a totally operative“single point of contact”for European loans creates a “win-win”situation: time and money are saved; the investiment gap is contained; small-and-medium companies as well as startups are supported; new jobs are created.
7. Global commerce and Brexit. A free and equal trade means welfare. Given that there are lots of complex supply chains and it’s necessary to create conditions for the moving of workers throughout Europe, the “status quo” on the commercial agreements between the Eu and the United Kingdom would be the best option for the industry, according to Ceemet.
8. Consulting the industry. The consultation of industry by European institutions should become a systematic and natural way because the experts of Tech and Industry sector have the aim to find solutions for the economy and its companies and so they need to cooperate with the state government.