What they fought for: the largest factories and plants in the EU are closing
Large factories in the EU are closing at a record pace since 2009: from January to August, 72 enterprises stopped working, 18 thousand people were left without work. Even during the coronavirus pandemic, fewer production facilities were closed. The current record is the third in the EU's recent history. Experts are sure that the EU markets are short of money due to the funds that are being spent on supporting Kiev, as well as due to the rejection of energy resources from the Russian Federation. Details can be found in the Izvestia article.
It never happened, and here it is again
The number of large enterprises closing in the European Union in the first eight months of 2025 has reached its highest level since the height of the global financial crisis in 2009. This is evidenced by data on the website of the European Restructuring Monitoring. 72 large industrial enterprises have announced plans to shut down their operations. For comparison, in 2009, 81 industrial companies closed during the same period, and at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, only 49 closed.
Spain was hit hardest, with 17% of businesses shutting down there. Other European economies were also seriously affected: in France, 14% of companies were closed, in Germany and the Czech Republic — 11% each.
As a result, 18,000 industrial employees were left without work. For comparison, 18.7 thousand people lost their jobs at the height of the pandemic, and 27.3 thousand people lost their jobs during the global financial crisis of 2009.
A bad deal from the USA
Last year, the German authorities sounded the alarm after the German Ministry of Economy and Climate published the next annual report on the country's economic development. As the German media wrote at the time, "there has never been such an unsightly situation in the economy of the state." The local press attributed the events to the Ukrainian conflict and Berlin's active assistance to Kiev, as well as the loss of cheap Russian energy resources. However, the situation has not improved since then.
In August, Bloomberg, citing sources, reported that industrial production in Germany had experienced the biggest drop in a year and led to a crisis. The reason for this was the trade duties imposed by US President Donald Trump.
"The volume of production in June decreased by 1.9% compared to the previous month," the agency explained.
US President Donald Trump
Because of this, many industrial companies are revising their forecasts towards further decline, at least until the end of 2025.
At the end of July, the United States and the European Union agreed on a trade deal: European goods supplied to the United States will be subject to a duty of 15%. Although this rate is lower than the 30% initially promised by the American leader, it is obvious that Trump concluded the agreement on his own terms. Washington noted that tariffs of 10% remain only for European aluminum and steel.
In exchange for tariff cuts, Brussels agreed to duty-free imports of goods from the United States and increased investment in America by an additional $600 billion. Also, the European Union has already promised to increase purchases of military equipment "by hundreds of billions of dollars."
According to Donald Trump, the total cost of energy supplies to the European Union will be about $750 billion. In addition, the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, promised to completely replace Russian gas and oil with supplies of American LNG and nuclear fuel.
The crisis started a long time ago
Natalia Eremina, a professor at St. Petersburg State University, notes in a conversation with Izvestia that the process of reducing production in the European Union has been going on for a long time and has long-term consequences.
— Starting from the crisis of 2008-2009, experts began to record a gradual reduction in investments in production, and companies began to look for cheaper labor. Manufacturers began to seriously save on social issues," the political scientist explained.
According to her, in general, the EU states began to gradually curtail the state welfare program and reduce social benefits.
— Even the working conditions have changed. Then the financial crisis of 2013-2014 also made its own adjustments, only exacerbating this process. Then there was a covid period when many enterprises simply did not work," the expert emphasized.
The specialist added that this affected not only production, but also the service sector.
— But if she was able to partially recover, then production is no longer there. It was closed down or moved to Asia for quite a long time, and the final verdict was anti—Russian sanctions," the analyst is sure.
According to Eremina, citizens of EU countries have felt the reduction in payments and government support in general.
— In addition, it was accompanied by an increase in payments to refugees. Of course, the ban on the use of Russian hydrocarbons had a very strong impact. At the same time, EU countries continue to buy Russian hydrocarbons — only now they do it through intermediaries. All this increases the cost of production," the political scientist explained.
Catastrophic consequences for Europe
Dmitry Suslov, Deputy Director of the Central Research Institute of Higher School of Economics, noted in an interview with Izvestia that the process of deindustrialization in Europe has not only not slowed down, but, on the contrary, is intensifying and gaining momentum.
— The Europeans' attempts to breathe new life into the industry through remilitarization and increasing military production have not yet led to the desired results. Industrial production is actually growing in some cases, shares in military—industrial complex enterprises are growing, but this does not give the necessary cumulative effect for the economy as a whole," he explained.
According to the political scientist, the growth of military production is spot-based and does not affect the overall picture.
"The overall picture is the ongoing deindustrialization of Europe, and the fundamental cause of the crisis is the loss of Russian energy resources," the expert said.
The expert added that the European Union still intends to reduce imports of Russian energy resources, which means that the situation may worsen.
— And this is a loss of competitiveness of European production relative to the countries of the world majority, primarily China, as well as other developing non—Western countries. This problem is only getting worse, given that Europe is considering the introduction of secondary sanctions and duties against China and India due to their imports of Russian oil," the analyst said.
Suslov is confident that the abandonment of Russian energy resources and the aggravation of trade relations with key non-Western countries, including the BRICS countries, will have disastrous consequences for Europe. In his opinion, deindustrialization has already led to very negative social consequences, and this will only increase.
— The statement by Merz and other CDU/CSU leaders that Europe can no longer afford to maintain a welfare state was very important. This is the result of deindustrialization. Naturally, the European population does not want to give up the social benefits that they have received for many decades, since the 60s of the twentieth century," the political scientist believes.
He is sure that the end result will be a change of European elites, and the current ones will go "to the dustbin of history."
— The resignation of Francois Bayrou is one of the first signs of this process. I think both Lecorn and Macron himself will follow him. I hope that in the future the new European elites will begin to pursue a less suicidal policy and will choose constructive relations with the countries of the world majority and, of course, with Russia, including a return to cooperation with the Russian Federation in the field of energy," the expert concluded.
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