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Europe works to compete with USA and reduce its dependence on China. The European Commission proposed to increase the levels of State aid to allow the EU to be more competitive with the USA on green products and electric vehicles. 

Recently the European Commission launched the Green Deal Industrial Plan which also aims to secure the supply of raw materials for reducing the EU dependence from other Countries.

 “We have a once in a generation opportunity to show the way with speed, ambition and a sense of purpose to secure the EU’s industrial lead in the fast-growing net-zero technology sector. Europe is determined to lead the clean tech revolution. For our companies and people, it means turning skills into quality jobs and innovation into mass production, thanks to a simpler and faster framework. Better access to finance will allow our key clean tech industries to scale up quickly”, Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, said during the launch of the EU Green Deal Industrial Plan. 

Europe feels the pressure by key actors in the market like USA and China that invested lot of funds in their plans for companies, like the American Inflation Reduction Act (Ira). “Major economies are rightly stepping up investment in net zero industries “What we are looking at is that we have a global playing field”, the President Von der Leyen said during a press conference.

With the Green Deal Industrial Plan Europe aims to provide a “more supportive environment for the scaling up of the EU’s manufacturing capacity for the net-zero technologies and products required to meet Europe’s ambitious climate targets”.

The Plan is therefore based on four pillars: a predictable and simplified regulatory environment, speeding up access to finance, enhancing skills, and open trade for resilient supply chains.

The Commission will propose a Net-Zero Industry Act to identify goals for net-zero industrial capacity and provide a simplified regulatory framework to promote European strategic projects and develop standards to support the scale-up of technologies across the Single Market. The EU Commission is also working on the Critical Raw Materials Act to ensure “sufficient access to those materials, like rare earths, that are vital for manufacturing key technologies”. Brussels will focus also on the “reform of the electricity market design to make consumers benefit from the lower costs of renewables”.

Furthermore, the Commission aims to guarantee a level playing field within the Single Market while making it easier for the Member States to grant necessary aid to fast-track the green transition.

However, between 35% and 40% of all jobs could be affected by the green transition. The Commission will propose to establish Net-Zero Industry Academies to roll out up-skilling and re-skilling programmes in strategic industries

An other crucial point of the Plan is to “protect the Single Market from unfair trade in the clean tech sector”. The EU Commission will use its instruments to “ensure that foreign subsidies do not distort competition in the Single Market, also in the clean-tech sector”. 

Written by:      Maria Irene Giuntella