industry

A New International Comparative Study by C4D Consulting on behalf of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom reveals: a lack of structural reforms and the planned EU ban on combustion engines threaten up to one in three jobs in the automotive industry, weakening its innovative capacity. Instead of technology bans, open and competition-friendly framework conditions are needed to secure the European automotive industry in global competition.

In late August 2025, the Institute for Economic Research and Policy Consulting (IER) released the results of its 40th monthly Business Tendency Survey, covering 474 industrial enterprises across Ukraine. The findings paint a picture of cautious optimism in the short term, but deep uncertainty over the longer horizon.

What should we know about Europe’s defense industry? What capabilities does Europe need to develop to deter the Russian aggression? What are the consequences of the German debt brake reform? And is a common European defense single market possible? Leszek Jazdzewski (Fundacja Liberte!) talks with Guntram B. Wolff, a Senior fellow at Bruegel.

Ostrava is an often overlooked region in the Czech Republic, facing a very difficult and uncertain future over the next decades. The region has historically been entirely dependent on coal mining, which is an unenviable position at present time, as the mines are being closed. Mining has historically made it the industrial backbone of the country, but heavy industry is currently in decline.

In this episode, we talk about the Ukrainian grain crisis, its economic and political context, the role and response of Poland and other EU countries to the issue, and the way forward for Ukrainian-Polish relations.

The evolution of modern society has been intertwined with successive industrial revolutions. In the first industrial revolution, the spread of the steam engine began to replace human and animal labor. In the second industrial revolution, the assembly line enabled mass production and the increasingly simple manufacture of increasingly complex things.

The metallurgical and metalworking industry has been one of the pillars of the Ukraine’s economy, but the war and the sea blockade are driving it into a deep crisis. In the industry, enterprises pessimistically assess their business activity and business climate; they continue to reduce production and exports.

Ukraine’s manufacturing sector suffers war losses, but most industries keep optimism about the future. However, manufacturers that secure the basic human needs (food, clothing, and shoes) demonstrate the best production and recovery results.

In June 2020, the German cabinet introduced a regulation banning certain single-use products made of plastic; the European Union had already introduced a similar regulation in May 2019. In future, the sale of products such as throwaway plastic cutlery, plates, straws and cotton buds will be prohibited.

In a way, digitization is old hat. E-mails turned 45 on September 30, 2016. In 1997, 4.1m Germans were online; today the figure is 58m. Growing up in today\'s world, it is impossible to imagine being without a smartphone. But not having a landline phone or not owning a car? No problem.