{"id":455083,"date":"2026-05-28T12:17:03","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T10:17:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/05\/28\/urso-sul-caso-electrolux-il-settore-degli-elettrodomestici-per-lue-sia-strategico-come-lauto\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T12:43:57","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T10:43:57","slug":"electrolux-urso-presses-eu-to-give-household-appliances-the-same-strategic-status-as-automotive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/05\/28\/electrolux-urso-presses-eu-to-give-household-appliances-the-same-strategic-status-as-automotive\/","title":{"rendered":"Electrolux: Urso presses EU to give household appliances the same strategic status as automotive"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013 The household appliance industry must be considered \u201cjust as strategic as the automotive sector,” said the Minister for Enterprise and Made in Italy<\/strong>, Adolfo Urso<\/strong>, today, 28 May, ahead of the European Union\u2019s Competitiveness Council. The key sticking point is the Swedish multinational Electrolux, which on 11 May announced its intention to close a factory, cut production, and reduce its workforce in Italy by almost 40 per cent. “I have asked that this important household appliance sector also be considered strategic, like the automotive industry, so that we can implement a European plan for the white goods sector and put safeguard measures in place,” the minister said during a meeting with journalists. The aim is to “ensure a more level playing field in the face of unfair Asian competition and to support business investment.”<\/strong> To achieve this, Urso explained that he will present to the Commission “a non-paper \u2013 a policy document \u2013 that will enable the implementation of a European plan for the household appliance sector, similar to what is being attempted with the automotive sector.” <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The Minister for Enterprise did not hold back in his criticism of European industrial policy. “If the EU within a few months, is forced <\/span><\/span>to present ten omnibus packages, to present the revision of the CO2 regulation and the revision of the ETS, as well as dozens of other reform proposals, it means that Europe has got it wrong,” he observed. For Urso, energy, economic, and industrial policy must be<\/strong> “radically changed in every respect<\/strong> because Europe thought it was living in a world without conflict” while “the world we live in is very different from what we had hoped for.” The request, Urso summarised, is that Europe \u201cshould not prevent individual states from implementing an industrial policy\u201d and that it should focus on \u201cwhat our continent really needs, leaving states free to operate as they see fit to achieve the same objectives.\u201d In this context, “<\/span>we are confident that the European Commission understands that Europe has run out of time,<\/strong>” he pointed out in response to a question on Italy\u2019s request for flexibility regarding the Stability Pact to address energy disruptions.<\/span> “We expect a solution that is sustainable, one that allows us to use resources to tackle what is clearly a major emergency” because “we believe it is absolutely necessary that energy be considered on a par with defence and security on our continent, and I believe that citizens fully understand this,” he stressed. <\/span><\/p>\n

This is not the first time the Italian minister has spoken out against EU policies. When Electrolux announced its redundancy plan, affecting around 1,700 employees, Urso described it as \u201cunacceptable\u201d and linked the sector\u2019s difficulties to \u201cthe ideological choices of the Green Deal\u201d and to Chinese competition in the European household appliances market. He reiterated this point to journalists again this morning before the Competitiveness Council meeting: \u201cIn this sector too, we are facing an invasion of Asian products<\/strong>\u201d which are<\/strong> \u201cflooding the European market like a tsunami.<\/strong>\u201d<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

Actually, the decline in production began before the Green Deal was approved. On 25 May, Urso then convened the <\/span>Electrolux working table<\/a>,<\/span> including the company, trade unions, Confindustria, the regions, and the local councils where the group\u2019s plants are located. Here, he described the company\u2019s plan as \u201cunacceptable, both due to the lack of adequate industrial prospects and the impact it would have on employment,\u201d without, however, putting forward a concrete proposal. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

A new round of talks is scheduled for 15 June. In the meantime, Electrolux has given an undertaking to the trade unions not to relocate production or begin redundancies before further discussions take place. Yesterday, however, the workers\u2019 representatives at a hearing in the Chamber of Deputies announced that twin production lines \u2013 mirroring those at Cerreto d\u2019Esi (in the province of Ancona, in the Marche region), the plant that the company wishes to close \u2013 have already been set up in Poland.<\/strong> <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Swedish multinational is planning to close a factory, cut production, and reduce its workforce in Italy by almost 40 per cent. The minister believes there is a need for “a European plan” and to “radically overhaul the EU’s industrial policy”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7911,"featured_media":455069,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[30805],"tags":[29127,34260,26884,26192,33394,26520],"class_list":["post-455083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-industry-markets","tag-council-competitiveness-en","tag-electrolux","tag-commissione-ue-en","tag-politica-industriale-en","tag-ue","tag-urso-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7911"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=455083"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455083\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":455084,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455083\/revisions\/455084"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/455069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=455083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=455083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=455083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}