IT Plast Maggio 2021 | Page 13

Eeditorial
| by Paolo Spinelli

Eeditorial

EDITORIAL

| by Paolo Spinelli

As we have seen in recent days , the spectacle of a ship wedged across the Suez Canal is all it takes to expose the fragility of the global transport system and economy . At the time of writing this piece , it would appear that the container ship Ever Given , after quite formidable efforts , is finally starting to move , thereby granting passage to the numerous ships waiting to transit the canal . In what is already a time of supply crisis , this incident has further underlined Europe ’ s strong dependence on external supplies , especially from Asia . For some months now , European industry has been running low on plastics , steel , microchips , components and much more besides . This problem of shortages seems to have become a structural feature of our industry ,

AND YET STILL NOTHING MOVES

as we saw just a year ago , when it became apparent that Europe does not produce any of its own protective masks or disinfectant gels . The slowness of the vaccination campaign in EU countries , thrown into sharp relief by the speed of the rollouts in the United States , UK and Israel , reveals just how difficult Europe is finding it to assume an effective leadership role in international politics and economic competition . The alarm was already sounded a year ago , by Frenchman Thierry Breton , EU Commissioner for the Internal Market with responsibility for European industry , single market and digital market , who underlined the need for Europe to take direct control of its own strategic interests . And yet , since then , little or nothing has changed , with the Commission currently struggling to ensure that Big Pharma respects the vaccine supply agreements made with the EU , while also wrestling with ever-present problem of securing agreements among 27 member states , which , wherever possible , have seized on the chance to take their own decisions : an independent stance that has produced some results , especially for the smallest countries . It is clear that change is indispensable and must happen now , even though it remains extremely difficult to say who should initiate it . The time has come for Europe , while taking care to avoid reviving anachronistic dreams of self-sufficiency , to take back control of its own production sector , overcoming the problem of repeated legal and regulatory impasses , and developing value at home , along with the ability to project it authoritatively outside its borders .
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Italian technology plast / May 2021
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