WDK calls for 'industry deal' to be linked to Green Deal

Frankfurt/Main, Germany – The new EU Commission should no longer regard industry and the economy “as a 'threat' or 'in need of regulation',"  said Michael Klein, WDK president - commenting ahead of the upcoming European elections.

"The European ‘economy’ is us: millions of employees, of specialists and managers, of entrepreneurs,” the German rubber industry association leader commented in a 4 June press statement. 

The industrial sector, emphasised Klein, is “an important part of civil society. With a strong interest in an environment and future worth living in. Nationally, Europe-wide and globally."

However, over the last five years, the EU Commission has shown a “general suspicion against the ‘economy’… [choosing] a preventive prohibition-oriented path especially towards commercial enterprises."

Leader Ursula von der Leyen’s tenure, he added, has been characterised by ‘technology-restricting mobility regulation, a bureaucratic monster of supply-chain regulation and intervention in corporate financing.’

Regarding the 'Green Deal', Klein said that the micromanagement and interventionist approaches of politicians and authorities were “not really suitable for creating a more ethical and successful economy."

According to the WDK leader, what the rubber industry needs “from the new EU Commission, but also from the EU Parliament, from 2024 onwards, is a new social deal. An 'Industry Deal'.” 

Concluded Klein: "We need location conditions that have appreciation for value-creation [and] enable the generation of the necessary resources and taxes to be able to finance the goals of the old 'Green Deal'.”