La politique industrielle communautaire face aux restructurations : quelles interactions, quelle coordination, quelle cohérence ?

Restructuring processes are a complex and global phenomenon occurring all over Europe. The recent analyses of restructuring operations in the European Union are part of the search for common Community values vis-à-vis globalisation. The European policy thus triggers and frames the restructuring process and plays an important role aside the role played by other institutions on the local, regional, national and international level. This article is divided into two parts. The first part highlights the industrial policy within the European Union by examining first the normative framework of Community industrial policy as set by primary Community law, and then, by apprehending its normative genesis within the framework of secondary Community law, as provided for in particular by communications made in 2005 and 2007. The second part focuses on the importance of coordinating European policies, and on the interactions between Community industrial policy and the restructuring process. It does so by an analysis of European soft law measures aimed at ensuring the influence of industrial policy on such process.