The EU Industry Days 2025 took place on 5-6 June in Rzeszów, Poland at a time of acute geopolitical tension affecting not just the security of Europe but its prosperity and competitiveness. Participants were strongly aware of these challenges but also saw the opportunities. A central theme was ‘Choose Europe’.
Over the course of the two days, the key themes covered were:
How competitiveness and decarbonisation can go hand in hand
The regulatory conditions, the market conditions, the public and private investment needed and how to generate and stimulate this: the business case;
Innovation
How to ensure that Europe stays in the global race for innovation, maximising the potential of research, excellence and bridging the lab-to-market gap, spurring innovation-based competitiveness and startups and scaleups;
The Single Market and the Simplification agenda
How to enable the potential of 26 million businesses and 450 million consumers in a simpler and faster Single Market, without unnecessary burdens;
Economic and military security
How to strengthen European value chains for defence and security by expanding the role of industry beyond traditional defence, fostering investment, innovation and agility, securing and diversifying supply chains, and advancing support and cooperation with Ukraine.
The event brought together close to 950 participants onsite and over 3,500 online viewers. Over the course of two days, the programme featured more than 40 sessions – from high-level speeches to plenaries and stakeholder panels. Nearly 200 speakers took the floor to share insights and contribute to the discussions. The exhibition area featured 40 stands, including a Meet the Experts corner, where participants could receive tailored guidance on EU funding and business support instruments. Exhibitors showcased innovative solutions, support tools, and success stories from EU programmes and initiatives. The matchmaking enabled direct business and networking opportunities, bringing together startups, SMEs, investors, clusters and public authorities to foster collaboration, investment, and new industrial partnerships.
As Director-General Kerstin Jorna noted at the end: the key word was ‘we’: EU institutions, EU Member States, industry, entrepreneurs and other stakeholders working together.
Recording of all the sessions are available on the Youtube channel of DG for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs.
EU Industry Days 2023 took place on 4-6 October in Málaga, Spain. The event gathered approximately 1200 participants both on site and online, including more than 200 speakers, for 3 days of discussions featuring industrial leaders, policymakers, SME representatives, start-uppers, researchers, and civil society representatives. In addition to offering an opportunity for participants to meet with EU and local experts to discover funding and business advisory programmes and visit an exhibition with 16 EU-funded projects, the EU Industry Days provided a platform for stakeholders to share their views with EU policymakers.
Recordings of all the sessions are now available on the Youtube channel of DG for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs. Below you can find the key messages from the event.
Green and digital transition
“As the world electrifies, this is our chance to stand out and make a real impact.”
– Taavi Madiberk, CEO of Skeleton Technologies
The implementation of the Green Deal Industrial Plan and the Net-zero Industry Act were key topics of this year’s edition. In view of ensuring a widespread deployment of net-zero technologies, several speakers highlighted the need to accelerate and harmonise permitting procedures across the EU. Some speakers also pointed out that the manufacturing of clean technologies is currently concentrated in a few Member States and should be extended, in parallel with the reinforcement of the EU electricity grid. And some also called for greater dynamism in the public procurement system and stressed that the latter should take onboard other criteria beyond price competitiveness, like data residency and cybersecurity. The topic of digital transition also came into the spotlight, making it clear that “there is no green transition without the digital transition”, as stated by Cecilia Bonefeld-Dahl, Director-General of DIGITALEUROPE. Speakers emphasized this point by saying that for most companies, including net-zero manufacturers, having a digital resilience strategy is critical.
Financing
“It’s not only about investing more money in the transition. It’s about finding new ways of spending the money that is already available.”
– Nicolas Brien, President of the European Startup Network
Between 2021 and 2027, the EU budget – including NextGenerationEU – is projected to contribute 578 billion euros for climate spending, but this funding needs to be complemented by different initiatives. One of the key messages from the event was that clear regulations that offer certainty are essential to attract investors. Panellists also noted that public funding needs to be accompanied by private funding, and the former can act as a catalyst for the latter. Speakers put forward the example of InvestEU and the Innovation Fund, which have mobilised venture capital. And several people expressed their wish of seeing the Capital Markets Union come to life, including former Italian Prime Minister, Enrico Letta. A key conclusion was that advancing the CMU is industrial policy.
Single Market and Ukraine
“The Single Market is not just a business of the past: it is a business of the future.”
– Enrico Letta, President of the Jacques Delors Institute
Against the backdrop of the 30th anniversary of the Single Market, industrial frontrunners and SME representatives alike called for the harmonisation of the legislative frameworks across all Member States and for a reduction of administrative burdens. Overall, stakeholders called for a higher focus on efficient implementation and a reinforcement of infringement procedures as opposed to the acceleration of new legislation. This is key to bring down costs and support scale-up of net zero and emerging technologies. As Bianca Dragomir, Director of Cleantech for Iberia stated, “in order to be and remain competitive, the EU needs to work on the speed, scale and simplicity of rules within the Single Market.” Ukrainian stakeholders also gathered in Málaga and called for EU companies to continue investing and placing orders in Ukraine. To that end, the Agreement on the Conformity Assessment and Acceptance of Industrial Products was highlighted as an important tool to complete Ukraine’s integration into the Single Market and ensure that EU and Ukrainian companies “speak the same language”.
Skills
“Science is fun, science is crazy, we need to inspire people.”
– Peter Wennink, CEO of ASML
A key takeaway from the event was that Europe is also the continent of talent. According to UN Education Index, 10 EU Member States are among top 20 performing countries worldwide. EIB Vice-President Mourinho stressed the importance of skills for our competitiveness: “Companies will choose to stay in Europe because this is where they find the knowledge base they need.” Some of the event’s panellists stressed the importance of guaranteeing the “right to be trained”. There was consensus on the need to push for the adoption of the right education curricula to supply the future labour force with the skills that EU industry needs. Stakeholders called for closer cooperation between industry and universities.
Open strategic autonomy
“Partnerships, partnerships, partnerships.”
– Alicia Garcia-Herrero, Chief Economist for Asia Pacific at Natixis
Another important message from the event is that Europe needs to position itself as a socioeconomic block which strives for rules-based competition and trade. According to some of the panellists, this principle should be reflected in our long-term partnerships with third countries. Following this line of thinking, some speakers pointed to the adoption of EU norms and standards by our trade partners as facilitators of trade and investment flows. Stakeholders stressed that open strategic autonomy is not only about promoting and protecting our industry but also establishing strategic partnerships with like-minded countries.
EU Industry Days 2022 took place on 8 - 11 February in hybrid format, gathering approximately 7,000 participants. The event featured 72 sessions, including high-level plenary sessions, stakeholder sessions, and Commission-organised parallel sessions, providing the opportunity for 342 speakers to have their voice heard. It also featured a virtual exhibition with 43 exhibitors and a podcast series with 10 episodes. Under the umbrella of the EU Industry Days, 61 local events took place across Europe and beyond, stimulating even more discussions and networking opportunities in addition to those provided by the event itself.
With the slogan ‘Unlocking the Future: EU industrial ecosystems on the path to the green, digital, and resilient transition’, the 2022 edition zoomed in on transition pathways, which serve to identify bottlenecks present in each industrial ecosystem that are slowing down their green and digital transition and to outline concrete actions that the EU, member countries, and industry are advised to implement to tackle those challenges. In addition, in light of the 2022 European Year of Youth, the event placed a spotlight on how EU industry can attract young Europeans and how the younger generations can shape the future of EU industry in return. Finally, speakers discussed how to tackle supply chain disruptions and presented practical tools to support companies, especially SMEs, in their recovery from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The EU Industry Days 2022 provided a platform for industrial stakeholders, the research community, civil society, EU, national, and regional policymakers, and youth representatives to co-create solutions and design a greener, more digital, and more resilient future together.
Key announcements
- Publication of the Transition Pathway for Tourism and presentation of the different industrial ecosystems presented scenarios for their own transition pathways.
- Presentation of the IP SME Fund. The fund unlocked €47 million to protect the intellectual property of EU SMEs in their COVID-19 recovery and green and digital transitions.
- European Chips Act: EU Industry Days participants were able to learn more about the European Chips Act, which aims to bolster Europe’s competitiveness and resilience in semiconductor technologies and applications.
- Promotion of the Pact for Skills (whereby companies, workers, policymakers, social partners, and many others commit to taking concrete action to upskill and reskill people in Europe) in the context of the event, and presentation of new partnerships.
- Standardisation Strategy: the event provided an opportunity to discuss the standardisation strategy, which outlines the Commission’s approach to standards within the single market and globally.
EU Industry Days 2021 took place on 23 - 26 February, gathering 6,500 participants. Despite being fully digital, the event was very active and inclusive. Around 4,500 networking activities took place during the event. The conference featured many high profile speeches (some are available in the summary below), the views and opinions of more than 200 other speakers, networking opportunities, a digital exhibition and a dedicated podcast.
The 2021 edition focused on opportunities: amid accelerated transformation and the changing global competitive landscape, European industrial strategy builds a business case for a greener, more digital and resilient industry. It provides tools to support our industrial ecosystems in this transformation and reinforce their global competitiveness. At the same time, it replies to Europe’s societal call to create new quality jobs while respecting planetary boundaries.
The event came at a very timely moment. In the midst of the preparation of our updated industrial strategy, we received real input and impetus for our work: the confidence that the EU will recover stronger from the COVID-crisis, how industry is ready for the green and digital future, and how our single market/scale, speed and joined forces are the key drivers for industrial ecosystems.
Key factors for EU industrial transformation
EU Industry Days 2021 highlighted key factors to speed up industrial transformation in Europe.
A more resilient and connected single market
The single market needs more flexibility to enable faster scalability for innovative solutions and business models. We need to equip small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with the right tools so they too can benefit from the single market, to reduce entry barriers for new companies, more standardisation and inter-operability. There is also need for stronger spirit of collaboration within the single market (regulatory and also, between large and small companies), less administrative burden and less fear of disruptive technologies or innovation (enabling regulatory framework).
Strategic capacity
At global level, strengthening our open strategic autonomy might require multilateral action whenever we can and autonomous action whenever we must. We should explore building on the various global and neighbourhood partnerships, find ways to develop our strategic capacities and make sure that our trade instruments are fit for the changing global situation.
Green and digital twin transition
To speed up the green transformation, while building a competitive industry, we need to reinforce European strategic capacities, ensure enough affordable decarbonised energy, put emphasis on innovation and the uptake of R&D, ensure the right skills for green jobs, use the potential of digital technologies for greening the industry and make sure that enough public and private financing is available. All this requires speed, scale and joined forces and a tailored approach to the respective industrial ecosystems.
The digital transformation also enables the green transition. Using this potential means putting people first, speeding up the R&I uptake, ensuring European industrial data ownership and sharing, fair and transparent rules for digital platforms and access to digital markets for all players (also SMEs). On the side of policy makers, it also requires adapting policy-making tools respective to the industrial ecosystems and using new ones (e.g. hackathons). Some of the aspects of digital transformation require global solutions (including Europe, US, China, India), e.g. digital companies paying they fair share of taxes. Trust among various industrial players and consumers is also key.
Actions presented at EU Industry Days
The event was also used to present a number of specific actions
- The launch of a new European Data 4 Healthy Recovery Hackathon, dedicated to solving the most pressing smart health challenges in Europe.
- The launch of a new and enhanced version of the European Cluster Collaboration Platform, which promises to strengthen the European economy through collaboration by bringing together partners to work on a green and digital transition and Europe's economic recovery.
- Updates from industrial alliances such as the European Battery Alliance, the European Clean Hydrogen Alliance, the European Raw Materials Alliance and the Circular Plastics Alliance were provided throughout the event during sessions with key stakeholders.
- In line with green industrial transformation, the relaunch of the Clean Energy Industrial Forum was presented. Through its new mandate it will play an important role in aligning the EU's industry strategy with its climate ambitions.
- The publication of the 2020 Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard was presented. The main objective of the scoreboard is to benchmark the performance of EU innovation-driven industries against major global counterparts, the results of which showed that companies in the EU are highly internationalised and have increased their investment in R&D for the tenth consecutive year.