(a)

Use the value-chain and supply-chain approaches for analysis and impact assessment in the design and monitoring of European policies and of the relevant decisions at national and subnational level.

(b)

Develop urgent and effective measures to strengthen the European internal market, ensuring strategic autonomy and production capacity. In particular, this means advancing European industrial and competition policies rooted in sustainable competitiveness and innovation. Similarly, on the external front, value chains must be reconfigured in line with a fair and sustainable trade policy that respects European social and environmental standards and multilateral rules.

(c)

Map supply chains, by assessing them on a granular basis, and analysing individual sectors and levels of company involvement, in order to design targeted policies that address sector- specific challenges and development opportunities, including at regional level. In this regard, the opinion provides data and possible tools that could supplement the existing methodologies.

(d)

Encourage the development of integrated industrial ecosystems to support communities and businesses within global value chains. This includes fostering business creation, participation, and leadership within these chains to advance a production model centred on European values and capacity.

(e)

Make greater use of the cohesion funds to ensure that the Member States have the infrastructure needed to avoid the disruption of value chains, in the areas of transport, resilience, citizen information, roads, IT infrastructure, food protection, cybersecurity, energy supply systems, access to reliable information, and data protection.

(a)

mapping the industrial capabilities of Europe’s regions, given that a comprehensive analysis of regional strengths and industrial ecosystems is paramount to tailoring policy interventions, including by identifying the leading firms operating in each value chain in order to pinpoint the key players and understand their role in the value chains for the purposes of targeted policy support;

(b)

designing policies that create value-chain-wide benefits, with due regard to the fact that the policies should support a balanced approach towards a fruitful coexistence between leading firms that can also generate positive spillovers for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), workers and regions within each value chain, ensuring an inclusive and resilient industrial and economic strategy.

(a)

the importance of Europe’s value chains in a context of growing uncertainty and security challenges;

(b)

the competitiveness challenges facing European producers – particularly MSMEs; and

(c)

the strategic geographical reconfiguration of Europe’s value chains towards countries that uphold social and environmental standards and respect multilateral rules, in line with a fair and sustainable European trade policy. This reconfiguration reflects the principle of friend-shoring.

(a)

The EESC stresses the need to ensure a system of supply chains that is not only resilient and efficient, but also sustainable in various respects. Europe must remain a leader not only in what it produces, but also in how it produces, with sustainable production models that must be extended throughout the chain. Value chains are often exposed to risks arising from the fragmentation of supply and subcontracting chains, the respect of collective agreements along the chain, and tax shifting. In this regard, the EESC reiterates that respect for social and environmental standards along all value chains remains a fundamental objective of EU policies in all countries, as well as within the EU itself. For these reasons, in addition to reiterating the recommendations of previous relevant EESC opinions (3), it stresses the need to promote collective bargaining and social dialogue at all levels, including in company restructuring processes, as part of sustainable corporate governance. It is also important to ensure that the use of public funds for companies, as well as all public procurement processes, are conditional on compliance with collective agreements, and to guarantee the involvement of the social partners in the assessment of the social impact of industrial change to avoid the emergence of further regional imbalances within the EU;

(b)

Cohesion policy can support participation in global value chains (GVCs) and GVC engagement, enhancing the active participation of the social partners in the whole process.

(a)

The EU should continue – and step up – its in-depth reviews of Europe’s strategic dependencies (4), including with a view to identifying critical value chains that require reshoring or nearshoring efforts to reduce overdependence on external suppliers, particularly in areas such as semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, and renewable energy technologies. The EU should take targeted steps to reduce strategic dependencies stemming from past offshoring processes – not only in production and services, but also in R&D – especially in sectors where such offshoring has undermined Europe’s industrial and innovation capabilities. The goal is not to reverse all offshoring, but to strengthen Europe’s autonomy while preserving global integration where appropriate. The European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) has emphasised the need to secure supply chains in critical industries and it is important to take this into account; it highlighted vulnerabilities, particularly in the context of critical technologies and raw materials (5). Data from the JRC and Eurostat on EU production and R&D offshoring trends can help quantify exposure and inform policy responses. European institutions and international bodies have also provided other interesting analyses (6). In its previous work, the EESC called for just transition measures with mapping activities and the establishment of dedicated observatory (7).

(b)

It is essential to pursue a policy of strengthening internal market integration through a comprehensive industrial strategy, based, inter alia, on the Commission’s guidance regarding economic security, in line with the recommendations of the recently adopted opinion on industrial policy and the strengthening of the internal market. Practices such as ‘domestic preference’ can help to strengthen internal demand and Europe’s productive capacities in the face of deficiencies that undermine Europe’s strategic autonomy and security. This preference should always be linked to the respect and promotion of European social standards.

(c)

The continuation of actions proposed by the Commission, the Member States and industry to create industrial alliances, Important Projects of Common European Interest (IPCEIs), agricultural cooperatives, and others, which make it possible to respond to challenges by sharing innovation and risks, as well as efforts to make greater use of joint purchases in strategic components, and to increase circularity and efficiency, appear to be strategic.

(a)

Many European industries rely on established value chains that need to be modernised, and the importance of digital transformation in ensuring industrial competitiveness and resilience is clear (8).

(b)

Policies should focus on fostering the adoption of digital technologies, automation, and artificial intelligence (AI) within traditional industries to maintain their global relevance, as also stressed by the EU Competitive Compass. It is also crucial to encourage the clustering of companies and industrial ecosystems in which companies can grow and share knowledge.

(c)

The emergence of AI in production processes also has implications for the management of increasingly complex supply chains. Beyond enabling greater automation and integrated product intelligence, AI can play a key role in enhancing the traceability of fragmented and multilayered value chains, as well as in establishing reliable and integrated verification systems for each transaction. To ensure that these tools contribute positively to compliance mapping and oversight, they must be designed to guarantee maximum transparency and uphold a human-centred approach – ensuring the active involvement of all stakeholders, and in particular, the social partners.