1.15. All EU institutional bodies should increase their efforts to keep the public informed about the values and challenges of high added technological value sustainable European industry.

1.16. Finally, the EESC asks the EC the promotion of multi stakeholders alliances and ensuring a more citizen-driven industrial performance.

2.1.1. The huge scope of the digital transformation, which goes beyond industry 4.0 (in both its manufacturing and service creation-related functions), is about to enter a phase only paralleled in human history by the shift from the Palaeolithic to the Neolithic: the infolithic.

2.1.2. Externalisation and relocation are the two main forces that have shaped the previous phases of industrial development, particularly since the inception of the industrial revolution a century and a half ago. They must therefore be approached on the basis of current changes, seeking to harness (regulate) them rather than slowing them down.

2.1.3. Most academic research warns that 20-50% of jobs, according to the industrial sector involved, will be replaced by a wide range of emerging technologies and robotics. New jobs will however be created, many of them in industry or ancillary services, although with greater disparity in terms of geography, sector and skills. The challenge facing European industrial policy is to prevent the EU, its regions and citizens from being excluded during these inevitable processes of replacement.

2.1.4. The digital transformation is having a blanket effect on industry's main resources: natural and environmental, labour and capital (physical, technological and institutional). It is crucial for the European Union to have a comprehensive vision and a new valuation of the main resources or capital stocks from which the main income streams will flow.

2.1.5. The starting point for this must be the most urgent and neglected aspect - intangible assets and capital - quantifying the value they bring to industry from a more social and, ultimately, more human point of view. According to the latest academic literature, this will enhance the value of decisions and strategies.

2.2.1 A fair transition towards a more sustainable industry in the horizon of 2050[2] force Europe to face the following challenges:

● The depletion of the earth's natural resources and biodiversity loss.

● Social inequalities, including youth unemployment, people left behind in regions with declining industries

● Public loss of trust in government, the political establishment, and the EU and its governance structures, as well as other institutions.

2.2.2 A long-term vision should simultaneously contemplate trends on population aging, migrations, mobility, sustainable energy and global warming, etc. Digitalisation will have a positive or negative impact depending on its management.

2.2.3 The complex design of the responses requires, from the beginning, the strong involvement of all relevant stakeholders.

3.1. In an increasingly globalised setting, Europe has opted to boost its competitiveness by enhancing the quality of its products and services, implementing a strategy of differentiation by regions and industrial sectors with the aim of generating growth and employment through the value added by creativity and smart design, social innovation and the fostering of new sustainable and inclusive industrial models (the Made in Europe brand).

3.2. Some encouraging indicators are already emerging in Europe, such as its 40% share of world patents in renewable technologies. New and serious mismatches are however occurring between educational and training functions, business initiatives and the new skills needed by industry, excluding groups who are less qualified or less able to change from the labour market.

3.3. Another major brake on industrial development across Europe can be explained by the fragmented nature of European Union policies, in both geographical and sectoral terms. Moving away from an approach of 28 different policies for each industrial sector towards a global focus for European Union industrial policy requires synchronisation with measures to complete EMU (fiscal and banking union in particular) and the adoption of a sustainable financing model, ensuring balanced and harmonised growth throughout the European Union.