The Draghi Report and SMEs in Europe: interview with Mario Conserva

The Draghi Report and SMEs in Europe: interview with Mario Conserva

The Draghi Report comes as a sudden light because it summarises what our association of aluminium users in Europe has been advocating for so many years regarding the fundamental issues of fair access to raw materials and adequate support to the heart of our industry, which are the small and medium-sized companies, combined with the major issues that have more recently come to the fore such as decarbonisation, energy costs, eco-sustainability, the pitfalls of unfair trade competitiveness that is represented not only by the continuous and well-known trading licences that many eastern countries have taken, but also by self-defeating choices vigorously supported by a few multinational raw material producing companies in terms of import restrictions on the raw material we need.

The leitmotif of Draghi’s suggestions is that of an absolute necessity for our old continent, a true industrial policy to avoid the agony of an otherwise inevitable decline. On many points, the report refers back to Letta’s previous study, and of great importance are the remarks referring to a theme that we have been addressing for more than twenty years, that of looking very carefully at the coordination between industrial policy choices, global competitive contexts and trade policies, a vital and essential point in the case of raw material aluminium, too often dominated by inertia or lack of attention that has then resulted in incomprehensible favouritism, which Face has been denouncing for over 20 years, such as the still operating duty on a raw material such as raw aluminium, which we lack today more than ever and on which we have been insisting since 2007.

The key to the Draghi Report is the strong message for Europe to commit to strong actions on eco-sustainable manufacturing, decarbonisation, technological development and a strong focus on sustainable energy. As we have been arguing for 25 years in FACE, many future opportunities are open for aluminium from the new paths towards the eco-sustainable transition, Europe and Italy have a great tradition of more than a century in the development of the aluminium and its alloys supply chain, it would be a serious mistake not to support as necessary, and also well stressed in the Draghi report, the small and medium enterprises that have made this industrial segment in the EU great in the world.

Here the full interview by Mario Conserva for Radio Radicale 👉🏼 https://www.radioradicale.it/scheda/738551/il-rapporto-draghi-e-le-pmi-in-europa-intervista-a-mario-conserva