C 275/32
EN
Official Journal of the European Union
18.7.2022
2.11.
The EESC recommends that the European Commission also prioritise missions and measures that generate new, high-quality jobs, business, income, wealth and a high quality of living for EU citizens, such as maintaining the competitiveness of Europe’s technological products against increasingly fierce global competition (especially with China, South Korea, etc.). 2.12.
A substantial amount of Europe’s jobs and wealth stems from exports of Europe’s technological products (cars, machinery, materials, etc.).
Another important source of new jobs in Europe are MSMEs, innovative start-ups, scale-ups and higher education. 3.
Specific comments 3.1.
Mission 1 — Adaptation to Climate Change 3.1.1.
Climate change is one of the biggest challenges for humanity in the 21st century.
Policy makers will need to anticipate the changes ahead in order to protect the sectors and groups most at risk, also considering employment.
3.1.2.
With almost all Green Deal measures, prices for electricity, fuel, domestic heating etc. increase for EU citizens.
These price increases have a particularly high impact on the hundreds of millions of people within the EU Member States with low and medium incomes and vulnerable people in general, which often are low-income EU citizens.
This means that all Green Deal measures have a significant social impact and must be handled carefully.
They must increase prosperity instead of sidelining those who need support to tackle the change.
3.1.3.
Examples of new technologies that will certainly play a very important role in reducing CO2 emissions include:
— decarbonisation of electricity generation; — decarbonisation of CO2-emitting industries, e.g. the steel industry, the cement industry, etc.; — carbon capture and storage (CCS) and, for example, sewage treatment plants; — storage of electric power on a very large scale for low specific costs; — e-mobility; — smart grids and high-voltage power grids; — smart cities, etc.
3.1.4.
These technologies are easy to list on paper, but implementing them is undoubtedly a huge challenge, given the scale needed for all 27 EU Member States as well as globally.
3.1.5.
One key issue in this global competition regarding new technologies will be the availability of a high number of researchers and engineers.
This is definitely a huge challenge for Europe.
Countries in Asia, have increased the number of students in physics, ICT and engineering massively over the last 20 years, whereas numbers have been more or less stagnant in Europe.
The European Missions should not only promote an increase in the number of these students, but the EU should promote a change in the current ‘brain drain’ of highly qualified people into a ‘brain gain’ for the EU.
3.1.6.
The EESC strongly recommends that the Commission define measures to substantially improve basic skills as well as increase the number of students in physics, ICT and engineering, and also in medicine and pharmacology in Europe in the next 20 years.
Without this engineering brain trust, Europe will continue to fall behind in all technologies needed to fight climate change. 3.2.
Mission 2 — Cancer 3.2.1.
The EU 27 is witnessing steadily increasing numbers of cancer cases.
The EU 27 must work together on improving diagnosis, therapy, access to personalised medicines, treatment and prevention — as was already emphasised in the EESC’s opinion on Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan in June 2021 (4).
Therefore, the EESC welcomes the fact that research for cancer prevention and cure has been indicated as one of the five EU Missions
(4)
OJ C 341, 24.8.2021, p. 76.