On 24th & 25th September 2024, Ceemet attended the second edition of the European Manufacturing Conference (EMC) focused on Europe’s Industrial Future. This was an excellent occasion to make our cooperation with the EIT Manufacturing become more concrete.
Indeed, last 21 June, Ceemet and EIT signed a Memorandum of Understanding with a view to supporting companies in addressing the pressing challenges faced by the European industry and society at large. The European Manufacturing Conference provided a valuable opportunity for dialogue with policymakers, industry representatives, as well as experts from academia, research and technology organizations (RTOs), startups, scaleups, and innovators.
The first day of the Conference highlighted at length the challenges that manufacturing industries face in the context of geopolitical changes, the twin transition or the shortage of labour. It gave Ceemet a great occasion to highlight the current challenges facing the technology and manufacturing sectors and to outline their expectations to maintain EU’s competitiveness at the global level. Ceemet emphasizes in its informal discussions the urgent need to address labour and skills shortages, while highlighting the importance of collaboration with social partners to ensure the effective implementation of a robust EU industrial plan.
The second day was geared towards addressing the topics of artificial intelligence (AI), big data, the industrial metaverse and the investment on Research and innovation. It was an interesting overview of what will be the manufacturing industry of the future and how to integrate AI into our business and our social models. In the frame of the transformation of the social model, the panelists discussed how to attract women and young people in the manufacturing industry. The technological sector as well as the AI environment are also dominated by men. Ceemet expressed its concerns about the ability of the MET industry to attract new workers, young people with STEM skills despite the massive amounts that governments and industry associations are spending in communication campaigns. Concerning the transformation of our business model, the Draghi report was mentioned as a basis for the discussion. The technology sector joins the vision of Mario Draghi on the urgent necessity to invest and increase the budget of research and innovation. However, the participants are aware that it cannot be only public investments, and that investments will have to be shared with the private sector. They are therefore calling for a better environment to attract investors in the EU, which means less administrative burden and better regulation.
Ceemet members will continue to work towards the improvement of the EU competitiveness and are willing to support the EU policymakers towards more efficiency.
