CECE discusses Single Market and Digitalisation with MEPs at Brussels Dinner Debate
On Wednesday 11th October 2017, the CECE Summit was kicked-off by a Dinner Debate in the European Parliament. The debate was chaired by MEP Jo LEINEN (Germany – S&D), hosted by CECE & CEMA, with the support of the European Forum for Manufacturing. The following MEPs took the floor to share their views with the audience: Anthea McIntyre MEP (ECR, UK), Jan HUITEMA MEP (ALDE, Netherlands), Deidre CLUNE MEP (EPP, Ireland), Nicola CAPUTO MEP (S&D, Italy) and Paul RÜBIG (EPP, Austria).
With the title “Agricultural & Construction Machinery in the Single Market; Today & Tomorrow”, the aim of the Dinner Debate was for industry and decision-makers to openly discuss needs, challenges and the way forward to secure and improve EU’s industrial competitiveness.
The first topic of debate was the upcoming European legal initiative to harmonise the requirements for road circulation of mobile machinery that travel on public roads. As clearly expressed by CECE VP Enrico Prandini (UNACEA – Komatsu), manufacturers are faced with a wide variety of national laws and requirements, creating substantial financial and administrative burden to prove that their machines can travel on public roads.
Industry and MEPs were unanimous in calling for one single approval system in all Member States. Speaking at the Dinner Debate, Acting Head of Unit Birgit WEIDEL (DG GROW) confirmed the European Commission’s willingness to develop such necessary legal framework, aimed at supporting the harmonisation of homologation procedures across the EU.
The second big topic of the Dinner Debate was the digitalisation trends in the machinery sector. After a motivating keynote speech by Margus Magi from the Estonian Presidency, two CECE representatives – President Bernd Holz (SVSS – Ammann) and Wolfgang Burget (CISMA – LIEBHERR) – provided elements of answer to the debated question: “EU Policies for the Industrial reality of tomorrow: How to realise the full potential of the Digital Single Market”. Mr Burget provided a technical input on why digitalisation must be driven by industry in full coordination within the value chain and provided an interesting teaser to the Technical Forum presentation of the following Summit day.
Upon conclusion and referring to the current Parliament discussions on the ePrivacy regulation, CECE President Holz alerted MEPs about the negative impact that a burdensome and inadequate legal framework could have on data-collection and Machine-To-Machine communication on jobsites.
For a quick recap of the Dinner Debate, check out our video
For an overview of the main messages raised by CECE and CEMA at the Dinner Debate, read the joint press release
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