The metal, engineering and technology (MET) industries represent 35 million direct and indirect jobs. Among our industries, we cover automotive, shipbuilding, aerospace, and medical equipment, among others. Companies in these sectors have been significantly impacted by the twin digital and green transitions, not only due to their activities but also because of the nature of their products. They are particularly susceptible to the geopolitical context, rising energy costs, and global competitiveness. To remain competitive, they must continuously innovate, evolve, and adapt to the challenges of tomorrow. This dynamic directly affects their employees, who must likewise adapt to new tools, technologies, and products, requiring ongoing skills development.

In this context of major transformation, it is essential to ensure the competitiveness of the MET industries, as competitive companies are better equipped to lead a successful transformation that benefits both workers and employers. It is therefore essential that EU and national policymakers work to create suitable enabling conditions for attracting investments and boosting competitiveness in order to achieve a successful transformation.

Indeed, in our view, the transition must be led by companies themselves. Legislation will certainly not provide the flexible solutions that are needed by companies to adapt to the rapidly evolving transformation of the economy and will only add additional burden and red tape at the expense of competitiveness.

It is a reality that in this transition, one-size-fits-all approaches are not the answer as the transformation varies greatly from company to company, from sector to sector, from region to region, and from Member State to Member State. In fact, industries need flexibility, not rigid and detailed legislation, in order to adapt quickly to rapid changes. Only in this way will we ensure a successful transformation.

In this regard, we would like to recall that the Competitiveness Compass released in January 2025 establishes competitiveness as one of the EU’s overarching principles for action. The aim of the compass is to make business easier and faster and ensure Europe’s prosperity. To this end, as the Commission itself points out, we need EU and national policies to be aligned around the same objectives and reinforce each other in order to foster an environment where innovation, clean technologies, and industrial strength can thrive. Now is the time to turn the ambitions set out in the compass into tangible actions.