Servitization or Reindustrialization of the EU in the Context of the Economic Crisis of 2008–2010

Recently, following the period of fascination with services, we can hear more and more often about the need for reindustrialization in the European Union, as an opposition to the rapid development of the service sector. As a result of economic crisis of 2008–2010, instead of introducing new business models which implement a concept of servitization that would facilitate the functioning of the EU internal market, we have witnessed reinforced protectionist and interventionist tendencies in both the manufacturing and service sectors. The aim of this paper is to verify whether the European Union is facing deindustrialization and/or servitization processes in the context of the economic crisis of 2008–2010. We therefore analyse and evaluate changes in the contribution of certain manufacturing and service sectors to the EU economy and internal/external EU trade in the period of 2004–2012. The research shows an increasing importance of the service sector, especially manufacturing-related services, and especially in the period of the economic crisis. It seems that the expansion of the service sector has allowed entrepreneurs to join servitization and improve their competitiveness in the EU internal market. Thus, servitization may lead to reindustrialization rather than deindustrialisation in Europe.