EU Industry Chief Calls for ‘Made in Europe’ Push

Europe needs to adopt a “Made in Europe” strategy to protect its industrial base and prevent the bloc from becoming economically vulnerable to global rivals, European Union industry chief Stéphane Séjourné said.

In an op-ed signed by 1,141 business leaders and published on Feb. 1 in multiple European news outlets, Séjourné, the EU French commissioner responsible for prosperity and industrial strategy, said that Europe needs to mirror policies already adopted by its main economic rivals.

“Without an ambitious, effective, and pragmatic industrial policy, the European economy is doomed to be just a playground for its competitors,” he said.

“The Chinese have ‘Made in China’, the Americans have ‘Buy American’, and most other economic powers have similar schemes that give preference to their own strategic assets. So why not us?”

Séjourné said Europe’s response to intensifying global competition “can be summed up in three words: ‘Made in Europe,’” adding that whenever European public funds are used, they should support European production and “quality jobs.”

He said that the year 2026 “has opened on a world we thought belonged to the past, a world governed by power politics.”

“Tariffs, massive subsidies, export restrictions, violations of intellectual property: international competition has never been so unfair. As the rules of trade are being rewritten, we no longer have a choice,” Séjourné said.

The debate comes as Italy and Germany, Europe’s two largest manufacturing economies, seek to shape the direction of EU competitiveness policy.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz unveiled a joint plan in late January calling for sweeping regulatory simplification across the EU, saying that excessive bureaucracy is undermining industrial growth.

The initiative, presented as a German-Italian action plan, focuses on cutting red tape, streamlining approval processes, and strengthening Europe’s strategic autonomy in areas such as energy, defense, and manufacturing.

“Today I believe Italy and Germany are closer than ever,” Meloni said, speaking at a news conference alongside Merz, adding that the EU’s ecological transition had “brought our industries to their knees” and empowered China.

The renewed focus on industrial policy has also drawn attention to a landmark 2024 report on competitiveness authored by former European Central Bank President Mario Draghi.

Commissioned by the European Commission, the Draghi report warned that Europe risks long-term economic decline unless it closes productivity gaps with the United States and China and removes internal barriers to growth.

However, progress on those recommendations has been limited.

According to a September 2025 report by the European Policy Innovation Council, only about 11 percent of the Draghi report’s proposals were implemented one year on, underscoring the difficulty of translating consensus on competitiveness into concrete policy action across the bloc.

Europe remains one of the world’s largest manufacturing regions, but its relative share has declined over the past two decades as production has shifted to Asia, particularly China.

From about 2001, when China joined the WTO, many EU firms shifted labor-intensive and mid-value manufacturing there to cut costs.

According to Eurostat historical data, the share of manufacturing value added in the EU economy has declined over time.

In 1995, manufacturing accounted for about 19.6 percent of EU gross domestic product; by 2015, it had fallen to about 15.9 percent, reflecting a long-term downward trend as services expanded faster than industry.

By the mid-2020s, that share had continued to edge lower; data from the World Bank show that manufacturing represented about 14  percent of EU gross domestic product in 2024.

In 2024, China was the EU’s third-largest export partner (8.3 percent) and its largest import partner (21.3 percent), according to EU statistics.