European industry is at a breaking point. Employers’ have sounded the alarm about the mounting pressures on our industries for too long. For the first time in a long time, the European Commission is listening. But listening is not enough. Without decisive action, deindustrialisation is no longer a distant threat—it is our near future.
The European Commission published on 26 February the long-anticipated Clean Industrial Deal in an effort to address the growing challenges of the European economy. Over the last year, the metal, engineering, and technology (MET) based industries have led efforts to advance Europe’s green transition, investing heavily in research and development. These sectors, which employ around half of the European industrial workforce, have also fought to keep the best possible conditions for their employees despite the COVID-19 pandemic, energy crisis, and mounting geopolitical instability. Yet, employment in our sector is shrinking. Our exports are declining both within and outside the EU. Meanwhile, China and the U.S. offer massive state support for AI and manufacturing, leaving European industries struggling with burdensome regulations, tight deadlines, and the high costs of the twin transition.
‘’Europe’s biggest challenge is ensuring our industries remain competitive while transitioning to a clean economy. ‘’
– Delphine Rudelli, Ceemet Director General
Cheaper and cleaner energy for European industries
High energy costs and a lack of infrastructure continue to slow down European manufacturers. Without a stable and affordable energy supply, competitiveness and eventually even the survival of industries will remain out of reach.
Ceemet supports the extensive focus on energy security, affordability and diversification in the Clean Industrial Deal. Cutting permitting times for various energy projects, ensuring well-functioning gas markets with stable prices, as well as the ambition toward electrification and a fully integrated energy single market can be life-changing for MET industries.
Ceemet also welcomes the Clean Industrial Deal’s highlighted support of energy-intensive industries and its intention to help them decarbonise, electrify, and tackle high energy costs to increase their competitiveness.
A Just Transition and quality jobs
Industrial policy does not exist in a vacuum — its impact on labour markets is profound and requires careful coordination. A just transition framework is essential to anticipate and manage employment and skills shifts while ensuring security for both companies and workers facing industrial transformations. In this context, the announced Quality Jobs Roadmap aims to serve as this anticipatory framework.
It is crucial to involve social partners in the development of the Quality Jobs Roadmap to ensure it remains aligned with the evolving world of work and offers forward-looking solutions. By representing the voices of both employers and workers, social partners help create a balanced and effective approach to industrial transitions.
While we support a Just Transition Framework negotiated and agreed upon by the social partners, we believe existing national and EU legislation already address collective redundancies and the restructuring process, making additional EU measures in this field unnecessary. The focus should be placed on social dialogue and collective bargaining at the appropriate level for anticipating and managing change and for upskilling and reskilling our industrial workforce.
Finally, Ceemet warns against the use of social conditionalities in the provision of public funding. An efficient industrial policy cannot go hand in hand with an increasing burden of social regulations or more constraints for companies, especially SMEs. Moreover, national legislation provides grounds for the exclusion of public procurement contracts in relation to labour law. Striking the right balance between industrial competitiveness and social measures is essential for sustainable growth.
The workforce of tomorrow
Ceemet welcomes the focus on skills in the Clean Industrial Deal. As the Deal states, industry needs a skilled workforce and must offer quality jobs to be able to attract top talent and remain competitive. Hence, we strongly support the proposal of the Union of Skills, due to be published on 5 March, as an overarching strategy to build the workforce of tomorrow.
The MET sector, specifically, faces a pressing need for STEM professionals. The EU must massively invest in STEM education and in awareness-raising campaigns to encourage Europeans—especially young people and women—to engage in STEM disciplines and, as a result, to enter the MET industries. In addition to building a new generation of specialists, it is crucial to encourage current industry workers to re-skill and up-skill, making vocational education and training and lifelong learning extremely important. It is particularly why we welcome increased investment of around 90 million euros from the Erasmus+ fund to streamline the sectoral skills framework in strategic industries linked to the Clean Industrial Deal. We insist that EU funding has to be made user friendly and easily accessible, in particular for SMEs to make use of it.
We are also supportive of the planned Skilled Portability Initiative for 2026 to facilitate skills recognition across borders, as well as the acknowledgement of the EU Talent Pool as an instrument to attract qualified talents from third countries.
Europe must act—now
European industries are not asking for handouts. We are ready to lead the transition—prepared to innovate, invest, and create quality jobs. But we need the right framework to do so. The European Commission’s Clean Industrial Deal is ambitious, and if implemented accordingly, this framework can enable growth, innovation, and long-term success for our economies.
Besides the Clean Industrial Deal, Ceemet also welcomes the accompanying sectoral plans and packages proposing tailored measures for critical industries. We look forward to continuing to contribute to the Strategic dialogue with the automotive industry launched earlier this year. Channelling the Commission’s 2025 work programme’s motto, we need a bolder, simpler, and faster Union. It is time for the EU to deliver.