Industrial policy in the EU: A guide to an elusive concept. Egmont Paper No. 69, September 2014

Bosch, Xavier Vanden (2014) Industrial policy in the EU: A guide to an elusive concept. Egmont Paper No. 69, September 2014. [Policy Paper]

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Abstract

Despite renewed interest in an EU industrial policy, the concept remains particularly elusive because it has no universal definition. This paper relies on a broad and inclusive definition of industrial policy proposed by Warwick (in an OECD working paper) to provide a clearer picture of what the concept encompasses when applied to the EU. It therefore includes an original visual taxonomy of the EU policies that constitute industrial policy. It can serve as a guiding framework for reflecting on industrial policy in the EU. The proposed framework holds a key lesson: coherence of action across different policy fields and across different levels of governance is essential at EU, national and regional levels. The framework provided in this paper constitutes a high-level reminder of the range of policies and associated instruments that should ideally be streamlined throughout the EU for maximum impact when any industrial sector, technology or task is promoted by the EU.

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