Brussels, 28 May 2026 – Commenting on the European Competitiveness Council, VDMA Executive Director Thilo Brodtmann says:
• “The European Union must not rely solely on protectionism and state-driven demand in its industrial policy. That alone would not be enough to eliminate the structural competitive disadvantages facing Europe as an industrial location. Rather, this type of industrial policy risks diverting attention from pressing challenges such as deepening the single market and reducing regulatory burdens. This is precisely where the EU Competitiveness Council should focus on.”
• “Whilst regulations on ‘local content’ and CO2 emissions – such as those set out in the Industrial Accelerator Act – may help to protect industry from unfair competition and keep production sites within the EU in certain sectors, where is the EU’s major initiative to strengthen the entire industrial base and ensure international competitiveness across the board?”
• “The EU must create an environment that is conducive to innovation and entrepreneurship in order to strengthen the technological edge of European industries. The IAA has virtually no impact on manufacturers of machinery and production equipment and contributes to the competitiveness of the machinery manufacturing sector only in exceptional cases.”
• “In principle, we believe the idea of establishing a European Competitiveness Fund to boost Europe’s productivity and technological excellence is the right one. However, this fund must focus on key industrial technologies such as industrial AI and manufacturing.”
The VDMA represents 3500 German and European mechanical and plant engineering companies. The industry stands for innovation, export orientation and SMEs. The companies employ around 3 million people in the EU-27, more than 1.2 million of them in Germany alone. This makes mechanical and plant engineering the largest employer among the capital goods industries, both in the EU-27 and in Germany. In the European Union, it represents a turnover volume of an estimated 900 billion euros. Around 80 percent of the machinery sold in the EU comes from a manufacturing plant in the domestic market.