A stronger and more competitive EU industry: President Juncker to open 2019 EU Industry Days

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On Tuesday 5 February, President Jean-Claude Juncker will officially open the 3rd annual edition of EU Industry Days (5-6 February, Brussels). 

The event is the Commission’s annual flagship conference on industrial policy that brings together key industry representatives, public authorities and civil society to discuss the future of EU industry against the backdrop of the Commission’s 2017 Industrial Policy Strategy. Jyrki Katainen, Vice-President for Jobs, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness; Elżbieta Bieńkowska, Commissioner for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs; and Margrethe Vestager, Commissioner for Competition, participate in the event, which will also welcome Kristalina Georgieva, interim President of the World Bank, and Li Yong, Director General of United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO). The Juncker Commission is helping Europe’s industries stay global leaders in innovation, digitisation and decarbonisation. The Investment Plan has already triggered over €370 billion in investments across the EU. Thanks to the Single Market, EU companies have access to more diverse, higher quality and cheaper inputs and are therefore more competitive globally. The High Level Industrial Roundtable will discuss trends and challenges facing European industries by 2030. The Commission will unveil preliminary recommendations of the expert group on strategic value chains. Vice-President Katainen will open the first meeting of the Circular Plastics Alliance – an initiative launched by the Commission in December 2018 which brings together the producers and users of recycled plastics with the aim of recycling at least 10 million tons of plastic into new products by 2025. To engage young people in this debate, the Young Leaders of Industry Forum will meet for the first time. In parallel, a series of events will be held across 18 EU countries as part of the EU Industry Week.  More information on 2019 EU Industry Days can be found here. Press can register for the event here. Speeches will be broadcast live by EbS. 

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