“First and foremost is the concern for the well-being of the people in Ukraine. This also gives rise to the challenge of contributing to an end to the violence with effective and consistent sanctions,” said Thilo Brodtmann, executive director, VDMA. “The supply bans on various goods to Russia affect large sections of the European mechanical and plant engineering sector. They affect exports worth several hundred million euros. It is now necessary to analyze the sanction conditions and their effects in detail.

“Counter-sanctions are also possible from the Russian side, yet it remains right to impose tough sanctions on the aggression against Ukraine. In the technology and capital goods sector, Russian manufacturers play a largely subordinate role.”

In other news, Hartmut Rauen, deputy MD, VDMA, says the EU Commission’s proposal for an European Data Act should respect entrepreneurial freedom and not introduce new rules that restrict established structures or emerging business models and may even be a obstacle to the mechanical engineering industry.

“Unfortunately, the draft Data Act now published, contains regulations that go significantly too far, such as excessive data access rights. In the mechanical engineering sector, it has been shown that in the vast majority of cases, machine manufacturers and their customers find a common ground that is fair and commercially feasible for both sides.

“There is then no need for legally binding direct access rights and rights of use, or for extensive information obligations with regard to data.

“The VDMA maintains that such far-reaching intervention in entrepreneurial freedom can only be justified if the market distortions – assumed by the Commission with regard to all industries without distinction – should occur. But even then, in our view, it would be the task of EU competition law to address any market failure. Mechanical engineering makes the biggest contribution to value creation in Europe’s industry and is the center of digitally networked production. We do not see any structural market failure.

“In addition, the VDMA sees dangers, among other things: in the protection of trade secrets, which is only very rudimentarily regulated in the Data Act, new legal uncertainties due to the fairness test for contractual bases, which is strikingly reminiscent of the German Terms and Conditions (AGB) control, in further bureaucratization, for example with regard to the establishment of arbitration boards that are to be responsible for disputes, and in access to data by state actors.

“The Data Act therefore interferes unnecessarily far in business relationships and the ongoing digitization of the industry, which – essentially – already has functioning solutions to offer,” adds Rauen.

Jennifer Eagle, editor