Sustainable industrial policy – development lines and comparison between Germany and Spain

The IGBCE Foundation for Labour and the Environment is involved in a collaborative European industrial policy project between Spain and Germany. The cooperation partners are UGT-Fica, CCOOindustrial, IGBCE, IGM, FES Madrid, HBS, Universidad Complutense de Madrid and Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.

The overall aim of the project is to initiate a discourse on sustainable industrial policy that explores possible bilateral collaborations between trade unions and knowledge institutions in Spain and Germany at the EU, nation state, region, sector and company territorial levels. An industrial policy conference is planned for June 2021 in Madrid. This event will lead to further regional industrial policy projects.

The project compares the socio-economic situation in Spain and Germany. Such “beacon” projects translate sustainable industrial policy into practical perspectives for action. The main topics are “innovations”, “supply/value chains”, “ecological change”, “work, education, co-determination” and “corona and the consequences”. A particular focus is on the potential for action through social dialogue – such as in the German government’s Commission on Growth, Structural Change and Employment and the Spanish government’s Just Transition Agreement, the “Acuerdo por una transición energética justa”.

The conference will bring together industrial trade unions in Europe, the central and regional governments of Spain, as well as companies, employers’ organisations, academia and civil society.