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CECIMO

CECIMO

CECIMO is the European association representing the interests of the machine tool and manufacturing technology industries.

Lobbying Activity

Meeting with Xavier Coget (Cabinet of Executive Vice-President Henna Virkkunen)

3 Dec 2025 · European machine tool sector

Meeting with Valère Moutarlier (Deputy Director-General Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs) and

3 Dec 2025 · Exchange with CECIMO Board on developments and challenges in the European machine tool and manufacturing industry

Meeting with Victor Negrescu (Member of the European Parliament) and Transport and Environment (European Federation for Transport and Environment) and

5 Nov 2025 · Union of skills in motion addressing the EU's workforce challenges

Meeting with Ana Xavier (Head of Unit Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs)

21 Oct 2025 · Exchange of views on the developments in the European machine tool and manufacturing technology sector

Meeting with Felicia Stoica (Head of Unit Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs)

15 Oct 2025 · CECIMO activities and exchange of views on the market surveillance.

Meeting with Aleksandra Kordecka (Cabinet of Executive Vice-President Stéphane Séjourné)

28 May 2025 · Discussion on the future of European manufacturing

Meeting with Bruno Tobback (Member of the European Parliament)

28 Apr 2025 · the Clean Industrial Deal and the Competitiveness Fund

Meeting with Kerstin Jorna (Director-General Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs) and

10 Apr 2025 · Impact of US tariffs

Meeting with Stéphane Séjourné (Executive Vice-President) and

10 Apr 2025 · Impact of US tariffs

Meeting with Giorgio Gori (Member of the European Parliament)

27 Mar 2025 · Discussion on Clean Indusrial Deal

Meeting with Pilar Del Castillo Vera (Member of the European Parliament)

25 Mar 2025 · Industrial Policy

Meeting with Raúl De La Hoz Quintano (Member of the European Parliament)

4 Mar 2025 · Introduction

Meeting with Dario Tamburrano (Member of the European Parliament)

4 Mar 2025 · Manifattura additiva

Response to Implementing Act for guidelines on strategic projects

19 Feb 2025

CECIMO is the European Association of Manufacturing Technologies. With a primary focus on machine tools and additive manufacturing technologies, we bring together 15 national associations, which represent approximately 1500 industrial enterprises in Europe (EU + UK+ EFTA + Türkiye), over 80% of which are SMEs. CECIMO covers 97% of the total machine tool production in Europe and about 1/3 worldwide. It accounts for approximately 150,000 employees and a turnover of around 27.2 billion euros in 2023. CECIMO welcomes the European Commissions efforts to establish clear implementation guidelines for selecting net-zero strategic projects, emphasizing the need for a streamlined, industry-friendly application process that minimizes administrative burdens and fosters innovation. We support recognizing first-of-a-kind manufacturing facilities but call for clarity on evaluating substantially upgraded sites, ensuring digitalization, automation, and AI-driven advancements qualify. Additionally, flexibility is needed in defining technologies not yet widely present in the EU to prevent exclusion of emerging solutions. The best available net-zero technology criteria should incorporate production efficiency, adaptability, and transformative potential. We advocate for pragmatic interpretations to enhance Europes industrial resilience, competitiveness, and sustainability, and we look forward to further collaboration with EU institutions and Member States.
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Meeting with Radan Kanev (Member of the European Parliament) and Orgalim – Europe's Technology Industries and

28 Jan 2025 · European Forum for Manufacturing Dinner- Decarbonisation through a technology neutral approach

Response to Firearms Trafficking Directive

18 Dec 2024

CECIMO unequivocally condemns the misuse of additive manufacturing (AM), referred to as 3D printing in this consultation, for unlawful purposes and supports efforts to mitigate these risks. However, as discussions on potential policy options evolve, it is vital to make sure that the EU does not put unnecessary burden to the innovation and economic growth of this sector in Europe. CECIMO recommends adopting balanced measures that address the misuse of AM while safeguarding its potential to drive innovation and industrial growth. By focusing on controlling the dissemination of resources for illicit activities, the EU can protect public safety without putting unnecessary burdens on the European AM value chain and compromising the transformative benefits of AM for European industries and society at large.
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Meeting with Mairead McGuinness (Commissioner) and

10 Sept 2024 · High-level executive roundtable: preventing the circumvention of EU sanctions on sensitive goods.

Meeting with Valdis Dombrovskis (Executive Vice-President) and BUSINESSEUROPE and

10 Sept 2024 · Preventing the circumvention of EU sanctions on sensitive goods

Response to Implementing Regulation setting out the template for the collection of data under Regulation (EU) 2023/1230

30 May 2024

CECIMO welcomes the Commissions efforts for the development of the template and system to collect data from Member States on accidents and health and safety at work, under EU rules on machinery. However, our industry has some concerns, as well as suggestions that we believe can help the Commissions and Member States work. Our feedback can be found in the document attached.
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Meeting with Kerstin Jorna (Director-General Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs)

6 Dec 2023 · Speaker at CECIMO Brussels Forum & MTI Awards 2023

Response to European Critical Raw Materials Act

29 Jun 2023

CECIMO welcomes the announced legislative proposal, the European Critical Raw Material Act (CRMA) as an important initial step towards developing competitive and resilient digital future and green transition of industries. Additionally, CECIMO expresses its support for the release of the first list of Strategic Raw Materials (SRMs) and the updated list of Critical Raw Materials (CRMs), which now includes six new materials, among which Copper and Nickel are considered primary for Machine Tools manufacturing. In the attached document, we would like to highlight the strategic importance of certain critical raw materials for our sectors (machine tools and additive manufacturing) and make the following recommendations: I. The Commission together with the industrial stakeholders should adopt a sector-based approach and ensure regular updates of the CRMs list to better align with the distinct raw material demands and varying priorities across different industrial sectors. Moreover, it is necessary to carry out regular investigations and analysis and update the list of critical raw materials at least every three years in order to follow technological and market changes. II. Remove different specifications for strategic raw materials as they have wide-ranging strategic applications beyond batteries. Additionally, include Aluminium as a strategic material in the list based on the Commission's Impact Assessment and Strategic Foresight Report, highlighting its increasing demand for energy transition, declining EU production, and the growing influence of China and Russia. Furthermore, we propose to consider adding Zinc to the list for its significant role in clean energy technologies and as a primary commodity for accessing other critical raw materials like germanium and gallium. III. Foster close collaboration with industries in the implementation of the CRMA to gain a comprehensive understanding of specific dependencies within Europe and its future demand needs. IV. By removing obstacles that hinder the acceleration of permitting processes and industrial operations, Europe can facilitate the swift implementation of projects, particularly those involved in extraction, processing, and recycling of Critical Raw Materials. V. Diversification for raw materials through the establishment of free trade agreements and strategic partnerships (Mercosur, Chile, Mexico, Australia, USA). VI. Strengthen the circular economy to enhance the accessibility of secondary raw materials. European Machine Tool Industries are already integrating recycled materials including recycled metals (such as steel and aluminium), plastics, and other reusable resources, into their business models. The EU must ensure that its policies and investments will address the availability, cost and quality of the recycled materials so that they meet the appropriate performance standards just like primary raw materials. VII. Article 23 Company Risk Preparedness: introduces supply chain auditing every two years, which imposes an unnecessary administrative burden on large manufacturers of strategic technologies utilising strategic raw materials. In the Article 20, the member states are already required to identify key market operators within the critical raw materials value chain and to monitor their activities through regular and proportionate surveys. Therefore, the Commission must clarify the criteria for selecting companies for audit and avoid imposing administrative burdens for companies (deleting the paragraphs 23.2 and 23.3). VIII. Minimise the disclosure of sensitive information for companies and safeguard trade and business confidentiality. Please refer to the attached document for further details.
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Machine tool builders urge inclusion in EU green taxonomy

3 May 2023
Topic — EU initiative defining sustainable economic activities to guide green investment and banking.
Message — CECIMO urges the Commission to recognize advanced manufacturing technologies as key enabling activities. They propose a technology-neutral section for industrial sectors to help them attract green capital.12
Why — This inclusion would allow manufacturing technologies to maintain access to sustainable finance.3
Impact — Competitive industrial sectors and smaller firms lose if rigid criteria penalize their activities.4
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CECIMO seeks clarity and self-assessment in Cyber Resilience Act

8 Nov 2022
Topic — The European Commission is proposing mandatory cybersecurity requirements for products with digital elements.
Message — CECIMO calls for clearer rules on which products require third-party certification. They want self-assessment options to remain available for manufacturers to ensure market agility. The industry also seeks to avoid overlapping reporting requirements with other EU regulations.123
Why — Using self-assessment would lower expenses and prevent delays in bringing new machinery to market.45
Impact — Suppliers may face legal liability if complex reporting chains lead to errors between business partners.6
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Response to Intellectual Property Action Plan

13 Aug 2020

CECIMO is the European Association of the Machine Tool Industries and related Manufacturing Technologies. We bring together 15 national associations of machine tool builders, which represent approximately 1500 industrial enterprises in Europe (EU + EFTA + Turkey), over 80% of which are SMEs. CECIMO covers 98% of the total machine tool production in Europe and about 35% worldwide. It accounts for more than 150,000 employees and a turnover of around 27 billion euros in 2019. Intellectual property right (IPR) plays a key role for businesses innovation, competitiveness as well as protects those knowledge-based assets which are essential for European companies’ investments. CECIMO believes that IPR should be part of all industrial policy discussion, comprising manufacturing innovation and competitiveness. To ensure global manufacturing leadership, the European Union should implement a harmonized IPR strategy for its upcoming trade agreements and strive to establish stronger and more effective World Trade Organisation level IPR protection rules. Machine tools manufacturers, like any other manufacturing sector, would benefit from policy initiatives that aim to create a modern and balanced system of IPR, which not only guarantees innovators their due reward but also stimulates a competitive market. In the field of new technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), there is a need to coordinate Member States’ approaches and their national policies to identify specific issues and build a common policy framework that can then be used and transposed at the international level. For additive manufacturing (also known as 3D printing), CECIMO believes that the current law is effectively regulating this technology. This statement was also supported by the results of the study recently published (May 2020) by the European Commission (The Intellectual Property implications of the development of industrial 3D printing) which confirms that the current regulatory framework properly covers the 3D printing value chain (materials, hardware, and design data). The 3D printing technology can offer different solutions to many sectors (minimizing waste, reducing CO2 emission and enabling efficient supply chains) and we believe that additional actions of a regulatory nature would at this stage of development negatively impact the innovation potential of this sector. Different measures have been developed by the industry to protect the product and IPR owner. For example, a QR code fused into a part of the product, allowing a smartphone to scan the code and receive information online, or embedded technology allowing for the application of restrictions on the type of 3D printer that can be used to generate a part of a given digital file. CECIMO welcomes the initiative and believes that any specific action on this topic should be preceded by dedicated stakeholders’ consultations and analysis intended to assess the costs and benefits for the European innovative business ecosystem.
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Response to A new Circular Economy Action Plan

17 Jan 2020

CECIMO and the machine tool industry have been committed to sustainability, which is an essential part of the competitiveness of our sector. In April 2019 we released a detailed Circular economy report (attached) which includes specific Recommendations for industry and policy makers. We therefore welcome the new Circular Economy Action Plan to increase recycling and reuse of products in the EU and we wish to put forward the following considerations: 1.Sustainable products policy and design for circularity Energy consumption during the use phase of machine tools has the most significant environmental impact over their life cycle. Machine tool builders have been increasingly focusing on environmental aspects such as energy efficiency of the machine tools during the design phase as well as providing a wide range of services to the customer during the use phase such as application engineering, maintenance and repair etc. to increase the sustainability of the production processes. 2.Reliable, verifiable and comparable information on products’ sustainability features Machine tools are rarely mass-produced, and, in most situations, modifications to their basic designs are needed to match customers’ specific requirements in terms of workpiece geometry or production performances. Greater digitization has enabled the machine tools to collect, exchange and analyze the real-world data, thus enhancing transparency in the production process. 3.Prioritize reuse and repair before recycling On average, 80% of machines are still in service ten years after installation, while 65% are still in service after 20 years. Given the relatively high value of machine tools, their refurbishment and remanufacturing are very common after a certain amount of time in use. This ranges from small improvements through to full rebuilds, which incorporate full automation and control systems. 4.Reduce waste generation The sector provides advanced manufacturing technologies which allow better control of the manufacturing process and traceability resulting in less waste, more efficiency and better management of resources. Moreover, machine tools use metals, which are extremely recyclable materials (e.g. steel and aluminum, with more than 90% recycling volumes). 5.Building skills and capacity for circular business models CECIMO recognizes that user behavior plays a major role in the actual energy consumption and performance of equipment over its lifetime. Therefore, machine tool builders provide on-site training of operators to ensure optimum performance of their equipment as well as instruction manuals with specific recommendations for the correct maintenance and avoiding overloads etc. 6.Additive Manufacturing and Circular Economy CECIMO represents the conventional machine tools and the Additive Manufacturing (AM) industry, commonly known as 3D printing. AM technologies provide an excellent example of an enabling technology which has embraced circularity in practice and has turned it into a business model. AM is a technology that based on a 3D digital model, builds up parts by adding material layer by layer, using only the material needed to produce a part and therefore reducing waste in the production process. 7.Innovation and investment opportunities for enabling technologies The slowdown in demand for new equipment hampers the ability to deploy more efficient and cleaner production technologies. We believe that innovation and investment opportunities and/ or tax incentives and financial advantages can support a more rapid transition to the circular economy. 8.EU initiatives along the life-cycle of products CECIMO supports self-regulatory measures and industry driven initiatives in form of a stewardship program to reduce waste and increase recycling of products. Industry involvement in the development of sustainable business practices is key for a successful circular economy action plan.
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Response to Revision of the Machinery Directive

11 Feb 2019

On behalf of the German Machine Tool Builders' Association (VDW) in Frankfurt (Germany), which represents around 60,000 employees and around 14 billion sales, I am obliged to say the following: The German machine tool manufacturers fully support the VDMA position and the identical CECIMO position.
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Response to EUGEA001 Brexit Contigency Measure

16 Jan 2019

CECIMO comments on the proposal to grant an EU general export authorisation to the UK Who we are CECIMO, the European Association for the Machine Tool Industries and Related Manufacturing Technologies, would like to present some comments on the European Commission’s proposal of granting an EU general export authorisation to the UK of 12 December 2017. CECIMO brings together 15 national associations of machine tool builders from 15 countries: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and UK. We represent approximately 1500 industrial enterprises in Europe, over 80% of which are SMEs. CECIMO covers more than 98% of the total machine tool production in Europe and 33% worldwide. Our sector creates employment for 136000 people. However, machine tools are the backbone of manufacturing, which employs 33 million persons in EU28. Our products fall within the Chapters 8456 to 8463 of the Harmonised Standards Nomenclature, and the chapters 2841 of the PRODCOM nomenclature . Facts and Figures of dual-use items trade in the Machine Tool industry In 2017, 46% of the machine tools exported by our members were dual-use items. The main export destinations for European dual-use machine tools outside the EU are China, USA, Mexico, Russia and India. Among the current EU members, the UK is the sixth biggest importer of dual-use machine tools produced in the EU. In 2017, the UK imported 243.1 million worth of dual-use machine tools from the other EU members, which makes the country an important trade partner for us in the post-Brexit world. This number has declined at a steeper pace every year since 2014 . Until now, the UK has benefited of the treatment of an EU member, which allowed our trade to run smoothly. We are hopeful that the Brexit negotiations will result in a preferential treatment for the UK to avoid any major disruption of trade flows. However, in the event of a no-deal Brexit, we are expecting drastic negative consequences for EU-based machine tool manufacturers exporting to UK. Our opinion CECIMO would like to express that our position is in favour of this proposal. In a context of contingency planning, we believe this is the preferred option, shall the UK exit without a deal, for the reasons below: 1) UK is one of the most important export markets for the EU-produced machine tools. A drastic increase of the administrative burden when exporting to the UK can cause irreversible damage to the EU-based machine tool exporters. 2) The export of EU machine tools to the UK has been showing a declining trend over the last 4 years. Therefore, we need the EU policies to be supportive of EU machine tool exports to UK and not cause additional damage. 3) The UK is member of the four international export control regimes outside the EU regime and complies with its related obligations. Therefore, it poses low risk of diversion. In the light of the information presented above, CECIMO believes that the benefits of granting an EU General Export Authorisation to the UK will largely outweigh the risks in the event of a no-deal Brexit.
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