Atividade Parlamentar Opportunities and challenges for resource efficiency in manufacturing companies and supply chains

Maria da Graça Carvalho participated in the  Dinner Debate Opportunities and challenges for resource efficiency in manufacturing companies and supply chains: the example of the surface finishing industry organized by Greenovate! Europe and the German Surface Industry Association (ZVO).

Speakers from industry and SMEs discussed the fine line between benefit and harm of European regulations with regard to innovations particularly of SMEs in the surface finishing industry. 

Maria da Graça Carvalho, rapporteur for the simplification of the EU research and innovation programmes and EPP permanent rapporteur for the research area in both the current Budget Committee and in the Future Budget Committee, gave an overview of how she sees the future of the different EU research and innovation programmes, underscoring "the need for increased funding in the present and future budgets for EU research and innovation programmes".

The event illustrated how greater resource efficiency in manufacturing companies and supply chains can be achieved and to what extent resource efficiency is one of the key drivers for competitiveness, not just for one company, but for the European manufacturing industry in general.

The European surface finishing industry with over 10,000 mainly small and medium sized companies is highly innovative. Whilst the industry has made substantial progress towards environmental-friendly and resource efficient production, the potential of innovations in this field has by far not been fully exploited yet.

See agenda here