Tajani attended the Conference "European Industrial Policy and Climate Change: a contradiction?"
On Wednesday 18 and Thursday 19 September the Vice President of the European Commission, responsible for Industry and Entrepreneurship, Antonio Tajani, was in Vienna to attend the conference "European Industrial Policy and Climate Change: a contradiction? "
On the eve of the event, Tajani stressed the crucial role of industrial innovation to address global challenges such as climate change, energy security or population growth. "If industry is the answer to these problems" according to Tajani, "we should not penalize it with unrealistic and punitive measures" The Vice President continued "industry and environment need to make a marriage of convenience: only by strengthening our industrial base and investing more in innovation we can develop cutting-edge technologies to reduce emissions . With increasingly prohibitive energy costs instead, we push our companies to relocate to countries which are less attentive to sustainability, weakening the fight against overheating and creating unemployment"
In his speech, Mr Tajani insisted on the need to correct some policies that have made Europe less attractive for manufacturing investments. Among the themes discussed, the opportunity for a more equitable distribution of the costs of greenhouse gas emissions and the need to complete as soon as possible the integration of the market, with infrastructure investment and increased competition to drive down the cost of energy.
On the sidelines of the event Tajani met Christoph Leitl, President of the Austrian Federal Chamber of Economy, and representatives of business leaders, including the Chief Executive Officer of Laarkichen Papier AG, Mark Lunabba, and Member of the Board of Directors of Erste Group Bank AG, Gernot Mittendorfer to discuss re-industrialization and access to credit.
