FEVE and Glass Alliance Europe are among top European business leaders calling for a new energy and climate change policy in the region.
While the International Federation of Industrial Energy Consumers (IFIEC) European manufacturers' lobby supports the EU's Emissions Trading System (ETS), it has called for an industrial renaissance to be at the heart of the strategy to move Europe out of its current crisis.
It calls upon Heads of State to adopt a set of measures to align the EU’s industry, energy & climate policies.
The manifesto was signed by 137 CEOs representing the EU’s manufacturing industry.
“This initiative, representing more than 1 million direct jobs from various sectors and countries all over Europe is exceptional”, explained Fernand Felzinger, the President of IFIEC Europe.
“It can only be explained by the severity of the crisis impacting the EU 28 manufacturing industry”.
Manufacturers have long lobbied against measures to strengthen the system while countries outside the European Union are not adopting comparable policies to tackle climate change.
The document highlighted the decline of European manufacturing over recent years, with industry's share of Europe's GDP down to 15% and 3.5m jobs lost in the sector since 2008.
