The Language of Power: Driving defence
Europe’s struggling automotive sector – still the continent’s largest manufacturing employer, accounting for nearly 14 million jobs and 7% of EU GDP – is facing contraction from the green transition, trade tensions and rising Chinese competition just as Europe seeks to rapidly scale up its underdeveloped defence industry.
This episode explores how car and truck makers could help address critical defence gaps, from production capacity and skilled labour to advanced technologies and supply chains, while unpacking the structural, regulatory and cultural obstacles that stand in the way of closer cooperation. Drawing on new research, EPC Senior Visiting Fellow Paul Taylor hosts a discussion with Fuensanta Martinez Sans of ACEA and Olaf Pannenbaecker, Chairman of the Board of the European Factories of the Future Research Association, to examine whether a meaningful convergence between the automotive and defence sectors is feasible, what it would take to unlock it, and whether Europe can adapt its peacetime industrial model to today’s mounting security demands.
You can also listen to the episode here:
This podcast is part of the Europe in the World Programme.
