This is a serious time. Much more serious than one might imagine. Never before have trade unions and various other organisations tried so hard to make their views heard before a European Summit of Heads of State or Government. So ahead of an informal summit with no agenda, no specific conclusions expected and despite the rules of European decorum which would have this "friendly" meeting take place in the country holding the rotating EU presidency, this energy to put pressure on the 27 leaders is unprecedented.
First it was Fedil, which sounded out the field last week to find out who would agree to broadcast its "Antwerp Appeal", which brought together representatives of 1,300 industrialists on Wednesday. Then there is the Chamber of Commerce, which, via its president Fernand Ernster and Eurochambres, is also insisting on making its voice heard. And the trade unions, the OGBL and the LCGB, which issued a warning in a press release. For an informal summit, a "retreat"?
Probably that... the European Commission and the Council themselves did help with the general mobilisation: While everyone agrees on the immense value of the reports by Mario Draghi and Enrico Letta, while they have been the subject of thousands of quotes, tens of thousands of compliments and words of emphasis, less than 15% of the 383 measures have been implemented in 18 months. This is a ridiculous European tempo at a time when companies are hanging on by their fingernails, when the American and Chinese blocs are waging a fierce battle and when artificial intelligence is going to reshuffle the cards for the long term and very severely. The report published on Tuesday by the National Productivity Council talks of 90% of jobs in Luxembourg being impacted by AI, mostly by making them more efficient, but that AI is also likely to free up 14% of the current workforce, according to a recent study by Statec.
On the eve of the Summit, the old Franco-German locomotive looks more like a team of two nags who don't want to go in the same direction. The French President, Emmanuel Macron, and the German Chancellor, Friederich Merz, share the same diagnosis but not at all the same treatment for the European patient, which leaves the door open to new constellations... but above all to a summit that would give birth to a mouse.
This Wednesday evening, live from Antwerp, European industrialists formalised their position in "The Antwerp Call to Alden Biesen". In it, they state that "there can be no resilient, secure or strong Europe without a strong European industry". In their view, the situation has deteriorated over the past year and the next five years will be "the most difficult for European industry for many decades".
The document points out that around 83% of the key performance indicators monitored for the EU have shown "no significant improvement". Electricity prices remain higher in Europe than in its competitors, and carbon costs are described as "unique" to the Union, with a system designed to increase charges year on year. The industrialists draw a parallel between the offensive industrial strategy of the United States and China's ambition to add the equivalent of a new high-tech sector over the next decade.
Faced with this observation, the signatories are calling for the Clean Industrial Deal to produce concrete results "at the heart of the factories" from 2026. Three priorities are put forward: reducing energy and carbon costs, strengthening fair world trade with better access to finance, and promoting the purchase of products made in Europe, in particular through public procurement and transparency of the carbon footprint. They also call for the "single market to be valued, respected, relaunched and improved".
In this context, Fedil, represented in Antwerp by René Winkin, is following the same logic of competitiveness and framework conditions. The employers' organisation emphasises the need to restore energy costs that are compatible with international competition, to guarantee access to finance for industrial companies and to secure supply chains. It insists on regulatory predictability and consistency between climate objectives and economic viability, in order to avoid site closures and job losses in strategic sectors.
In a new joint press release, the OGBL and the LCGB are defending an alternative approach to the one being drawn up, which would be based on "massive investment in our industries, in workers and in their skills" and on the inclusion of "strict social conditions in all public funding and state aid". The two organisations are also calling for an "end to deregulation measures that weaken workers' rights and social and environmental standards".
"It is essential to restore business competitiveness and support investment in the productive apparatus to ensure the financing of our social models", warns Fernand Ernster, President of the Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce, in a reaction he sends us at the same time as the carte blanche from Eurochambres, the umbrella organisation bringing together European Chambers of Commerce and Industry, and its President, Vladimír Dlouhý.
Eurobonds defended by Macron but ignored by Merz, regulatory simplification of the internal market, diversification of trading partners, and protection via a European preference in strategic sectors - the last 48 hours have been a festival of solutions on which no one is able to agree. So much so that we are hearing renewed talk of moving forward at different speeds depending on the compromises that each side might accept... Except that no progress at different speeds has ever enabled the EU to regain its weight at global level, and that is precisely what is at stake in this... retreat where there is no question of retreating.