Digitizing European Industry

On January 11, 2016, the Commissioner presented and discussed concrete ideas of a "Digitising European Industry" action plan which have emerged from these consultations and are planned to form part of a Commission policy document.

The overall strategy aims at establishing a link between national and regional initiatives like Industrie 4.0, Smart Industry, Industrie du Futur, High Value Manufacturing, etc. thereby providing the necessary degree of coordination and helping to reach critical mass where individual initiatives cannot achieve the right scale on their own.

The action plan is based on four strands:

• Securing easy access to digital innovation infrastructures for all industrial companies, and especially SMEs, wherever they are located in Europe and for any sector – building on and complementing national and regional initiatives;

• Aiming for European leadership in digital industrial platforms based on European strengths in important areas of manufacturing and engineering like automotive, aeronautics and energy;

• Preparing the workforce to benefit from the digital transformation - by promoting digital skills across Europe and its regions, at all levels of education and training;

• Identifying smart regulatory solutions for smart industry – finding the right policy approach to challenging issues like liability and safety of autonomous systems, ownership and use of industrial data, and the emergence of the Internet of Things.
  
  

The outcome of the discussions is a broad agreement around the proposed concrete actions.

There is an urgent need for European industry, Member States and European Commission to act together in order to benefit fully from the opportunities offered by digital technologies in a European digital single market. Europe needs to further explore how to better collaborate and how to best mobilise industrial, regional, national and European investments to foster the development of digital ecosystems across all economic sectors in Europe.

During the informal Competitiveness Council meeting in Amsterdam on January 27/28, 2016, the European ministers responsible for competitiveness met to discuss the digitisation of industry, strengthening the single markets (digital and services), future-proof legislation and innovation-friendly frameworks.

Key focus of their discussion was based on the following three questions:
1. What role do policymakers have in facilitating industry standards? Which standards should be prioritised?
2. What kind of initiative should be undertaken to improve digital skills and how could this help?
3. How can we ensure that regulation is future-proof and innovation friendly? In your view, which areas should be prioritised in adjusting regulations?

Next steps

• Until spring: present a policy document and to go public with the plan at Hannover Fair.
  
  
• Further consultations and roundtable meetings until summer 2016.
  
  
• Till end of 2016: Draft possible action plan.

EUnited Robotics issued a position paper commenting on Oettingers strategy (click here for download)