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#EUIndustryDays Day Four live blog

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FINAL UPDATE 15:37

That's where we're leaving our coverage of EU Industry Days 2021, but keep an eye out for some of the post-conference features posted here over the next week or two.

Thanks for joining us!

UPDATE 15:26

There are four concurrent panels currently running.

On now: Transition to safe and sustainable chemicals – opportunities and challenges

This panel will discuss a necessary part of the energy transition: green chemicals and the trials and tribulations associated with them.

Panellists:

On now: Regional cooperation for climate neutral, digitally advantaged and more competitive Europe

This panel sees various experts from across Europe discuss the twin transition and how they can bolster Europe's future.

Panellists:

On now: Regions in industrial transition: making digital work for SMEs in regional innovation ecosystems

This panel discusses the opportunities for digital solutions for industrial SMEs with us during this workshop and online and how we  can learn from regional examples connected in the Vanguard Initiative and Eurada.

Panellists:

On now: Between competitiveness and protectionism – what does the future of European trade look like?

The main goal of this panel is to create a common understanding of the importance of free global trade and the dangers that nationalism and protectionism pose to our businesses and our society.

Panellists:

UPDATE 13:35

On now: People-centred industrial policy: how community economy can create opportunities for all

This session will discuss various necessary ingredients and innovative tools ensuring modern equality: from skills, application of technologies and innovations, new and participatory business models, data for all, local green deals, IPR sharing etc.

Panellists:

This panel is being moderated by Katrina Sichel.

UPDATE 13:20

On now: Introductory speech

This is an introductory speech for the next plenary event: "People-centred industrial policy: how community economy can create opportunities for all," delivered by Jean-Eric Paquet, Director-General of DG RTD at the European Commission.

UPDATE 13:05

On now: Inspirational talk: Clean hydrogen powering clean industry – future or fairy-tale?

This panel goes into details about whether or not green hydrogen - which is currently a fledgeling technology - can power the green industrial future.

The panel is hosted by Dario Traum, the head of energy transitions at BloombergNEF.

UPDATE 13:00

On now: EU Industry Days Exhibition: Meet the public’s favourite projects

In this panel, the master of ceremony Jennifer Baker unveils the public's favourite EU projects.

They are:

UPDATE 12:36

EU-Africa partnerships on sustainable raw material value chains

The panel began with an introduction from moderator Peter Handley, who explained the session’s purpose was to prepare the ground for collaborations between African and EU companies in the metals and mining sectors.

The first question asked the panellists to share their experience on the existing cooperation between the EU and Africa in raw material value chains.

Eramet’s Bruno Faour described his company’s two main activities in Africa. The first in Gabon, extracting manganese and managing the country’s only railway line. The other of the company’s projects is in Senegal and deals with titanium extraction. Eramet is also currently prospecting in Cameroon.

Faour described three main difficulties for the company in Africa. The first is the lack of development in terms of infrastructure and workforce skills. The second is the sometimes volatile political situation, as well as ethical issues that come when working in impoverished parts of the world.

The third difficulty Faour spoke of was “mining nationalism”, which he said was not concentrated in Africa but was a worldwide issue. He described a situation where money from the World Bank, which was given to developing countries to exploit these natural resources, was not always given out “in a good way”, alluding to widespread corruption and sometimes hostility.

Next up was Marie-Chantal Kaninda, Head of Corporate Affairs in the Democratic Republic of Congo, at Glencore.

Her company has two facilities in the DRC, a country that is the world’s largest producer of cobalt. Kaninda, in particular, turned her attention to issues and perceptions of small-scale or artisanal mining.

“Artisanal mining represents around 10% of production in the DRC and it’s decreasing. The problem is when we talk about mining in the DRC, we refer mainly to child labour. I think that it should be disassociated from large-scale mining. We won’t deny it’s a problem, and it comes from extreme poverty.

“We need economic development, and not to a boycott of production in order to better address that poverty. This is the approach that Glencore is taking. We’ve invested around $8 billion in the DRC and we’re the only European company left now, with many having been replaced by Chinese operators.”

Mark Rachovides, President of Euromines, a pan-European association that represents a number of mining companies, spoke next.

He began by saying that “mining is a global industry and we seem to still be deciding as a species whether global is a good thing,” which he used to provide a context to the debate.

In terms of cooperation between the EU and Africa, he highlighted a project from Dundee Precious Metals whereby the Tsumeb specialty smelter in Namibia provided a secure outlet for the processing of concentrate from the Chelopech operation in Bulgaria. The collaboration, he said, had prevented the former from becoming a ghost town, and made the latter one of the country’s wealthier regions.

“We should be exporting our standards and not our problems from Europe,” he said.

Independent consultant, Sheila Khama, spoke of her extensive career working in senior roles at several mining giants. She praised the EU’s support of the World Bank and the African Development Bank’s financing in various parts of Africa, which had aided development.

She also praised the European focus on responsible mining practices, using Switzerland’s “Clean Gold” programme as an example of this. She also highlighted Finland’s contribution to training and expanding the continent’s geological knowledge base.

She said, however, that the EU has been less present in terms of direct funding for mineral projects, and cited it as one way the bloc could increase its African footprint.

UPDATE 12:05

How the EU can remain competitive in the changing trade landscape

The EU must rethink its strategy for global trade if it wishes to remain competitive in the global scene, panellists at the EU Industry Days event have announced.

Ill-effects from the Covid-19 pandemic have shown that integrated, global supply chains may not always be feasible during a time of global crisis, particularly when aspects of those chains are unsustainable in the face of any pressure.

The pandemic primarily exposed fragility to the EU's open trade policies and focus on cost-cutting as well as how much its industries are dependant on foreign goods, not only for raw materials but also intermediate products for manufacturing.

Read the full story here.

UPDATE 11:42

On now: Meet-the-experts session - Single Market programme

Panellists:

Meet-the-experts session - SME access to finance

Moderator:

Panellist: 

Meet-the-experts session - European Cluster Collaboration Platform

Moderator:

Panellists:

UPDATE 9:57

On now: Value chain integration: EU and the neighbourhood countries

This panel looks into how the EU can leverage its geographical and cultural proximity with the eastern and southern neighbours to bring manufacturing closer, diversify and ultimately achieve greater autonomy.

Panellists:

On now: Trade in time when the global competitive landscape is fundamentally changing

This panel will discusses how businesses see their supply chains in the near future and in the medium term and the reasons behind their strategies.

Panellists:

Jean-Paul Agon, chairman and CEO Officer of L’Oreal

Neil Carr, the president for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at Dow Chemical Company

Denis Redonnet, the deputy director-general/ chief trade enforcement officer for the EC

On now: EU-Africa partnerships on sustainable raw material value chains

This panel discusses how businesses see their supply chains in the near future and in the medium term and the reasons behind their strategies.

Panellists:

Peter Handley, a head of unit at the EC

Sheila Khama, the director of SK Consulting

Mark Rachovides, the president of Euromines

Kurt Vandeputte, senior vice president at Umicore

Marie-Chantal Kaninda, head of corporate affairs in the DR Congo at Glencore

Bruno Faour, the head of public affairs and CSR director for the mining division at Eramet

UPDATE 09:27

On now: A more autonomous, yet open Europe - inspirational dialogue

Speaker(s) :

UPDATE 09:12

Valdis Dombrovskis, European Commission’s Executive Vice-President is discussing the digital transformation in the EU.

Jorna Kerstin, Director General, Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, is welcoming participants to Day 4.

Welcome to the third day of EU Industry Days.

Coverage begins in five minutes and will open with a plenary opening speech by master of ceremony Jennifer Baker.

To see yesterday's live blog click here. To see yesterday's rundown, click here.

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