The European Green Deal is entering a new phase focusing on industrial policy, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in her annual State of the Union speech on Wednesday (13 September), hinting at what a potential second mandate could look like.

Launched in December 2019, the Green Deal was branded as Europe’s “new growth strategy” and was instrumental in putting the EU’s climate agenda at the centre of the economy, von der Leyen told the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

“As we enter the next phase of the European Green Deal, one thing will never change. We will keep supporting European industry throughout this transition,” she added.

The long-awaited speech is von der Leyen’s last before her five-year mandate expires on 31 October next year, and observers in Brussels were looking for clues about what a potential second mandate could look like.

The Commission President responded to those expectations by pointing to a package of legislation proposed earlier this year, which included the Net-Zero Industry Act and the Critical Raw Materials Act.

The package was put together in response to growing concerns that European industry was losing its competitiveness, with China outcompeting in areas like solar panels, concerns about the US’ green subsidy scheme undercutting European business, and worries that the EU cannot access the raw materials it needs for the transition.

“We need to finish this work,” she said, adding that the EU’s strategy will focus on developing “an approach for each industrial ecosystem” – a process she said will start “this month” with “a series of Clean Transition Dialogues with industry”.

“From wind to steel, from batteries to electric vehicles, our ambition is crystal clear: The future of our cleantech industry has to be made in Europe,” she declared.

As part of this, von der Leyen announced the launch of “a European Wind Power package” that will “focus on skills, access to finance and stable supply chains”, fast-track permitting even more and “improve the auction systems across the EU”.

While global competition is good for business, it also has to be fair, von der Leyen said, denouncing “predatory practices” by some countries or excluding European companies from certain foreign markets – without directly naming Beijing.

“We have not forgotten how China’s unfair trade practices affected our solar industry,” she said, warning that the same now risked happening with electric cars from China, whose “price is kept artificially low by huge state subsidies.”

In response, the EU Commission chief annouced the launch of an anti-subsidy investigation into electric vehicles coming from China.

“Europe is open for competition. Not for a race to the bottom,” she warned.

Reactions

Von der Leyen’s speech went down well with the renewable and electricity industry, with CEO of industry group SolarPower Europe, Walburga Hemetsberger, saying Europe should do whatever it takes to keep its competitive edge.

“This promise must translate into action. Solar project developers face inflation-driven headwinds. Europe’s solar manufacturers are at risk of bankruptcy,” she commented.

“Europe is betting on solar to drive the energy transition. That means we need continued and decisive action to support grids, accelerate permitting, expand the solar workforce, and urgently address today’s crisis in the solar supply chain,” Hemetsberger added.

Meanwhile, the secretary-general of Eurelectric, the EU’s power industry association, praised the focus on strengthening Europe’s supply chains and addressing the regulatory barriers faced by the wind industry.

But he called for more to be done regarding the buildout of infrastructure necessary for a transition to clean and renewable energy, saying this is a “crucial prerequisite”.

Environmental organisations, however, were not so convinced, with the European Environmental Bureau (EEB) saying the speech concealed setbacks, delays and broken promises.

“In a speech filled with numbers and pledges kept, Ursula von der Leyen has deliberately glossed over the delays and diluted ambition that, file after file, have eroded the credibility of her initial Green Deal promise,” said Patrick ten Brink, Secretary-General of the NGO.

Greenpeace EU also criticised the European Commission President, with director Jorgo Riss saying: “Much of our continent has suffered through the summer either on fire or flood, or both, and von der Leyen’s politics condemn us to more of the same. She has no plan to end fossil fuels or industrial farming – the two biggest threats to the planet’s life-support systems.”

Source: Euractiv.com