British paper manufacturers have joined forces with the European counterparts to highlight the plight of industrial sectors struggling to remain competitive in global markets.
Their campaign BASTA – which is Spanish for ‘enough is enough’ - calls on the new European Parliament and Commission to ‘get back on track’ by developing a meaningful industrial strategy which supports manufacturing industry.
The
Confederation of Paper Industries(
CPI) represents the supply chain for paper, comprising recovered paper merchants, paper and board manufacturers and converters, corrugated packaging producers and makers of soft tissue papers.
It represents 68 member companies from an industry with an aggregate annual turnover of £6.5bn with 25,000 direct and more than 100,000 indirect employees.
David Workman,
CPIDirector General, said there have been over 2,300 new regulations and Directives produced in Brussels, many of which have been ‘gold plated’ once they are transposed into UK law.
In a letter to all UK candidates in this week’s European Elections he outlines that some of this legislation carries an enormous direct or indirect cost burden to industry, whilst others set targets which are simply unachievable in the timescales envisaged.
“The position in the UK is even worse as direct and indirect energy/carbon costs make the UK uncompetitive, even with some of our European neighbours,” he said.
“The lack of progress on integrating Europe’s energy infrastructure is alarming, given that climate change and other environmental targets are set on a Europe-wide basis.”
The letter notes that the European Paper Industry was the first industrial sector to produce a 2050 Roadmap.
This was followed by a year of in-depth research which led to the production of a report outlining several potential ‘blue-sky’ projects, for which industry now need funding.
He called for a fresh approach to industrial policy; one that is put at the heart of UK and wider EU government thinking, and which is not an afterthought once environmental, climate change and social measures have been agreed.
“This new approach needs to include an aspiration to increase manufacturing output to 20% of EU GDP by 2020, and the creation of a ‘circular society’ through encouraging resource efficiency and genuine recycling,” he said.
“If successful in the forthcoming elections, I would seek your support in making this fresh approach to industrial policy a reality.”