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THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS

 agrees with the Commission that a strong industrial base is of prime importance to Europe's competitiveness and steady growth. Stressing that industry means much more than the traditional manufacturing sector which it is typically used to refer to, and stressing that industrial processes and ecosystems have an enormous impact throughout society, the CoR urges rapid implementation of the measures proposed in this statement;

 points out that Europe's competitive advantage in the global economy derives mainly from its sustainable, high-added-value products and services, and therefore that reducing during a period of economic crisis the innovation investment that is essential to industrial renewal has come to pose a serious threat to Europe's future;

 proposes that the Commission increase its activities in regional and local benchmarking, exchange of experiences and peer learning – all of which are crucial to building industrial innovation capacity and are therefore of great relevance to Europe 2020. To take on a coordinating role and offer partners a platform for finding solutions, LRAs' administrative capacity in these areas needs to be strengthened;

 calls for the Commission to take re-industrialisation measures that focus on excellence and promoting excellence across Europe's industrialised regions, supported by the Horizon 2020 programme. INTERREG programmes are certainly necessary instruments for strengthening networking between universities of applied sciences located in industrialised regions;

 challenges the young digital generation and their start-ups to contribute to the design and implementation of regional smart specialisation strategies by helping to identify gaps and to fix the processes in the necessary value chains in the regions. The new innovative solutions should focus on both public and private industrial processes and behaviour of citizens as customers.