MINORITY POSITION By - Marc Botenga (shadow rapporteur and author of the Minority Opinion) - Marisa Matias - Cornelia Ernst - Manuel Bompard - Sandra Pereira - Sira Rego Industrial strategy can allow society to decide democratically on what to produce where at what conditions, making industry a formidable asset for people and planet. Conversely, it can leave these decisions to the market and amount to little more than a massive transfer of public subsidies, funding the profits and priorities of private corporations. This report makes the wrong choice. It pays lip service to social and climate imperatives, but systematically prioritizes competitiveness and the needs of multinational corporations. It refuses to make public subsidies conditional on safeguarding quality jobs or suspending dividends. Additional tax credits are offered without corporations having to pay their fair share of taxes. Almost ironically, the report recalls that companies not registered in tax havens also deserve support. Green subsidies come without binding emission reduction targets. The permissive EUclassification for sustainable activities (taxonomy) is hardly mentioned, with no strict compliance required, while fossil gas is accepted. Questioning merger and antitrust restrictions, the report promotes a ‘more concentrated internal market,’ hence reinforcing regional disparities and SME-dependence on dominant multinationals. Even in strategic sectors, the report sees no role for a public manufacturing sector, nor for ambitious public social and climate planning. Workers and climate deserve better.
RR\650700EN.docx
33/95
PE650.700v02-00
EN
