Europe’s largest trade union organisations have warned that the EU is in a “very worrying situation” as the continent faces industrial decline due to soaring energy prices.
A Eurostat survey showed industrial protection in the trading bloc fell 0.2 per cent month-on-month in November 2023.
This is the third consecutive monthly decline, while year-on-year industrial production also fell 5.8 per cent over the period.
Speaking at a press conference, Ludovic Voet, confederal secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation, described the crisis as a “very worrying situation”. He added:
“These figures are a canary in a coal mine: the biggest hit are the long-term investments in buildings and equipment.”
Voet also emphasised the impact of minimal investment in key infrastructure, as shown by Eurostat’s research. In November 2023, EU production of capital goods such as buildings, machinery and equipment fell by 0.8 per cent month-on-month, following a 0.7 per cent fall a month earlier. Mr. Voet stated:
“The lack of investment we are seeing today is already having dramatic implications for working communities. Factories are closing and jobs are being cut in the very sectors that lifted Europe to where it is today.”
Judith Kirton-Darling, acting general secretary of industriALL Europe, which represents seven million workers in the EU, echoed the confederal secretary’s concerns. She told Euractiv that her organisation “has been sounding the alarm for some time about the industrial decline and the threat of deindustrialisation in Europe”. Ms Kirton-Darling explained:
“Alarmingly, fiscal austerity and a return to austerity policies are further hampering industrial development, potentially undermining Europe’s competitive position in the global market.”
Union leaders believe the EU’s failure to control industrial decline is pushing European workers towards “bitterness and frustration”, which in turn fuels the rise of the far-right on the continent.
Tobias Gehrke, a senior fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, believes the EU’s economic problems have been triggered by the energy crisis resulting from the outbreak of war in Ukraine in February 2022.
He said the bloc is unable to compete with the “lush industrial policies” of the US and China, and the continent is facing the consequences of insufficient infrastructure and a shortage of skilled labour.
