Thank you very much, Paula. And thanks all of you for being here.
We have worked a lot. It has been a very productive Commission meeting. We promised a Clean Industrial Deal within 100 days, and here we are on the 88-day delivering it. Ensuring that we have the right answers in a world that is changing, shifting fast and so must we.
Our vision is for Europe to lead as a clean manufacturing power. Europe needs real and concrete responses. We need a Clean, Competitive and Just transition.
We are here to act, deliver results, and to stay true to our values. We know that our industry deserves a bright future, and we need to invest right now because the future starts today. Europe has many strengths and we are ideally positioned to deliver. We have developed a proposal, and we seek the active involvement of Member States and social stakeholders.
The Clean Industrial Deal is Europe's business plan to tackle the climate crisis, boost the competitiveness, ensure economic resilience and retain talent. Especially the talent of our youth. The Clean Industrial Deal is a long-lasting proposal to keep Europe as an attractive hub for traditional industries, accelerating new clean technologies and circular business models that can compete worldwide.
It is a commitment to our people. It is a commitment to create quality jobs, building skills and offering opportunities for all – especially young Europeans.
It is a concrete and tangible document that lists short- and medium-term actions, providing the certainty and predictability that Europe needs to build trust.
Trust unlocks investments, boosts demand markets for clean tech and provides the conditions for companies to grow and compete at a level playing field.
We came up with an integrated approach, ensuring that all the relevant EU policy tools are aligned and work in the same direction, complementing each other and providing the best conditions to invest in the European Union.
This is why we work to ensure: (i) Access to affordable energy; (ii) Boosting clean supply and demand; (iii) Mobilising public and private investments; (iv) Powering the circular economy; (v) Fostering international partnerships; and (vi) Upskilling workers with quality jobs and ensuring social fairness.
To ensure access to affordable energy, today we have also adopted the first deliverable: an Action Plan for Affordable Energy that will be introduced by Commissioner Jorgensen later on. Paying attention on how we can make energy bills more affordable, ensure a well-functioning gas markets and build on an Energy Union effectively interconnected.
We need to be consistent with taxation. Recommending lower taxation in electricity if we want to electrify. Minding the importance of a more intense, smart and effective use of the grids and energy infrastructure, if we want to lower the fixed cost of our system.
Thinking on de-risking for investments. Thinking on how we play with corporate Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) for an indicative amount of €500 million to cover PPAs. Thinking on how we can work with the EIB also in terms of providing a grid manufacturing package and being clear for strengthening our grids and interconnectors systems. Counting on well-functioning and transparent gas markets and providing a level playing field for all.
Competition tools do also play an integral part in keeping gas markets competitive, ensuring a level playing field among price setters and offtakers as well as supporting Member States when designing the responses in situations of extreme price spikes or exceptional price environments to decouple the transition of high gas prices into electricity prices.
The right answers in the right relevant markets to ensure the level playing field and the benefits that it provides to consumers have always been a key driver for competition policy. It is still the case but as I said the world is changing, so are the markets and so must we.
Competition policy can also help in leveraging access to finance, with the aim to crowd in private investment and to ensure a level playing field across the Single Market.
This is why we will facilitate an investment-friendly environment through a new State aid framework, which will simplify and expedite support for renewable energy, industrial decarbonisation, and the manufacturing of clean tech products, ensuring effective use of public funds and encouraging private sector involvement.
It will also encourage Member States to implement tax incentives such as accelerated depreciation periods to make clean investments more financially attractive to businesses.
We have to build on the lessons learnt from the ongoing Important Project of Common European Interest to simplify and speed up the ones to come by assisting Member States more actively in the design phase, and by facilitating access to finance.
We aim to identify a Joint Roadmap for competitiveness and decarbonisation pointing up to€ 100 billion in funding, based on available funds in the Innovation Fund, additional revenues resulting from parts of the Emission Trading System as well as the revision of InvestEU, according to the rules and the identification of the European Competitiveness Fund in the Competitiveness Compass.
Our deal also places a strong focus on strengthening the availability of raw materials to ensure economic security and resilience. This also means improving our domestic policies to promote the efficient use of materials by placing circularity at the core of our decarbonisation strategy and also at the core of our industrial aims. This will not only improve the affordability and accessibility of essential materials but also reduce our dependencies.
Our deal establishes a framework that places circularity at its core. We will adopt a Circular Economy Act to accelerate the circular transition, leveraging our single market, enhancing the availability of key resources, driving innovation and creating fit for purpose conditions.
In addition, we will need to achieve our goals in close cooperation with our ability to act internationally.
Europe cannot realise its clean industrialisation objectives without partnerships on the global stage as well as without protecting the level playing field for our companies.
We will implement new Clean Trade and Investment Partnerships as a fast, flexible, targeted approach to trade, tailored to the concrete business interests of the EU and our partner countries.
However, it is clear that for a transition to a clean and digital economy we will need to count on the people. We need to ensure that this transformation is just and inclusive. We are committed to ensuring that the benefits of this transition are shared by the whole society.
The transformation of our industry requires skilled people and quality jobs.
Skills and quality jobs will be the foundation of an inclusive and equitable green transition, especially for regions reliant on high-carbon industries.
The shift to a clean energy is already creating jobs. By 2030, the EU's renewable targets alone will generate over 3.5 million new jobs in the renewable sector, offering a bright future to the workers and to the SMEs.
But this transition means change - some sectors will need to facing challenging circumstances. This is why we need to identify future-oriented skills, decent working conditions, and quality jobs for all.
To support workers in the transition we are further looking into social and upskilling conditionalities. We are trying to find how we can improve our capacity to monitor progress in implementing just transition policies.
We are well positioned to achieve more championing progress, performance, and sustainable growth rooted in our values.
And I am convinced that our industries and workers will benefit from this revolution.
I now pass the floor to my Colleague Executive Vice – President Séjourné and later on Commissioner Hoekstra.
Vice-président exécutif Stéphane Séjourné
Merci, Chère Teresa.
Mesdames et Messieurs,
Aujourd'hui, l'Europe a décidé de mettre les moyens pour sa décarbonation, et sa réindustrialisation. Plus de 100 milliards d'euros en tout.
Et pour cause : à l'heure où certains veulent nous imposer leur modèle - d'où qu'il vienne - la meilleure réponse, c'est d'abord de renforcer le nôtre.
Car décarboner notre industrie n'est pas seulement une question environnementale. C'est aussi une stratégie de croissance et un impératif de sécurité.
Associer décarbonation et industrialisation, c'est faire le choix d'un modèle européen unique qui vise à renforcer la compétitivité, créer des emplois, et assurer la prospérité de tous les européens – partout à travers l'Europe.
C'est tout l'objet du Pacte pour une industrie propre, que Teresa, Wopke et moi vous présentons aujourd'hui : c'est un engagement fort pour une production industrielle « made in Europe », durable et compétitive.
L'attente est très forte. C'est confirmé par chaque visite de site industriel que je fais - toutes les semaines depuis le début de ce mandat.
En un mot, il faut produire plus, et il faut produire mieux. Et produire mieux, ça veut dire produire décarboné, et produire européen.
Ce pacte, c'est en quelque sorte le business plan de l'industrie européenne bas-carbone. Et aujourd'hui je vais vous présenter les quatre grandes lignes de ce business plan : la demande, les coûts, les financements et les inputs.
La demande, d'abord.
Semaine après semaine, j'entends la même chose des entrepreneurs et des employés que je rencontre : nous avons fait des efforts pour décarboner, mais il n'y a pas assez de demande en acier propre, ou en ciment propre.
La priorité est donc de dynamiser le marché du bas-carbone en Europe. Pour cela, il faut stimuler la demande.
Ce Pacte propose de repenser totalement la logique de l'achat public, jusqu'ici basée sur le seul critère du prix.
On introduira de nouveaux critères de durabilité, de résilience et de préférence européenne dans les marchés publics, et plus généralement dans les aides publiques.
Nous viserons également les marchés privés, tels que les flottes de véhicules d'entreprises.
Deuxième ligne du business plan: les coûts.
Nos sites industriels font tous face au même problème: des prix de l'énergie trop élevés.
La raison, on la connait : le marché de l'électricité est volatile, ce qui contribue à augmenter le prix des factures. Il faut donc permettre aux sites les plus intensifs en énergie de s'extraire de cette volatilité.
Avec Teresa Ribera et Dan Jorgensen, nous proposerons de renforcer les contrats d'achat d'énergie de long terme.
Nous lançons dans les prochaines semaines un projet pilote avec la Banque Européenne d'Investissement, qui pour la première fois garantira ces contrats d'achat d'énergie. On mise sur une augmentation de la demande en contrats de long terme.
Ceci doit: accroître la production d'énergie propre européenne, découpler les prix de l'électricité de ceux du gaz, et promouvoir la sécurité énergétique en Europe.
Troisième ligne du business plan: les financements.
L'idée est simple: on accompagne financièrement les secteurs industriels qui font le pas, et jouent le jeu, de leur décarbonation. Et on le fait conjointement – institutions européennes, États-membres, autorités publiques et entreprises privées. Parce que pour électrifier une aciérie, par exemple, on a besoin de tous ces acteurs, et de mettre e synergie l'ensemble des acteurs.
Pour cela, on touche en particulier à trois sources de financement: les fonds européens, la mobilisation des fonds privés, et les aides d'état qu'a déjà évoqué Teresa.
D'abord, les fonds européens.
Nous prévoyons de renforcer les capacités du fonds pour l'innovation dont Wopke parlera.
Mais aussi mobiliser des fonds privés principalement par InvestEU, dont la garantie permettra de lever davantage d'argent privé. Grâce à de bonnes mesures de simplification nous augmentons d'ailleurs aujourd'hui sa force de frappe de 50 milliards d'euros, dont 25 peuvent être directement mobilisés pour la décarbonation.
Quatrième et dernière ligne du business plan: les inputs.
Je commencerai par un élément central de toute équation industrielle : l'achat de matières premières.
Nous avons deux objectifs : diminuer la facture en matières premières, et limiter nos dépendances.
Il faut être très clair : nous devons être beaucoup plus stratégiques dans notre politique d'achat, et de production, de matières premières.
Cela passe d'abord par le fait de sécuriser notre propre extraction, et exploitation de métaux rares. Les sous-sols européens contiennent de nombreuses matières encore inexploitées.
A l'heure où je vous parle, nos services sont en train de finaliser une liste de plusieurs dizaines de projets d'exploitation de matières premières, aux quatre coins d'Europe.
Il s'agit de projets: d'extraction, de production, de recyclage, ou encore de constitution de stocks stratégiques sur notre sol.
En parlant de recyclage, ce Pacte possède un volet de mesures dédiées à la circularité des matières premières. Or aujourd'hui l'Europe sous-exploite ce marché.
Pour y remédier, nous inciterons dans la loi sur l'économie circulaire à garder les déchets de nos matières premières critiques en Europe. Il n'est pas normal qu'aujourd'hui l'Europe exporte la black mass des batteries, qu'elle rachète ensuite reconditionnée au prix fort.
Enfin, nous proposons de créer une plateforme d'achat commun de matières premières. Et donc décider ensemble à qui on achète, comment, et à quel prix.
On doit faire avec le lithium ou le cobalt ce qu'on a fait avec les vaccins Covid.
Ce qui m'amène à mon dernier point. Comme cela a déjà été dit, l'Europe est un joueur, pas un terrain de jeu.
Nous devons utiliser plus systématiquement nos outils de défense commerciale.
Par un renforcement des règles régissant les subventions étrangères, dont nos entreprises sont les premières victimes.
Et par l'introduction de nouvelles conditions aux investissements étrangers sur notre sol - par exemple, sur la propriété intellectuelle.
Une chose est sure : l'Europe doit devenir LA destination mondiale pour les investissements en technologies propres. Mais chaque deal doit un être un deal gagnant/gagnant.
Une partie des nouvelles mesures de ce pacte seront reprises et appliquées à certains secteurs clés. C'est tout l'objet des plans d'action sectoriels que nous présenterons d'ici peu : sur le secteur automobile (dès la semaine prochaine), sur l'acier et le métal, sur la chimie, sur le transport durable, et sur la bioéconomie.
Je terminerai juste par un mot sur les premiers omnibus de simplification, dont mes collègues Valdis et Maria Luis parleront plus en détails.
Dans cette même pièce, j'ai eu l'occasion de rappeler le mot d'ordre de notre doctrine économique : la compétitivité.
Cette bataille de la compétitivité se gagne sur tous les fronts. Celui de l'investissement. Celui du prix de l'énergie. Celui de l'innovation. Celui de la productivité.
Et évidemment: celui du cadre réglementaire.
L'Europe a une réglementation prévisible. L'Europe a un système juridique, qui assure les droits des entreprises, des travailleurs et des investisseurs.
Dans un monde où les acteurs économiques sont de plus en plus soumis à l'arbitraire de certains politiques, c'est un atout indéniable. L'Europe doit rester cet îlot de stabilité et de droit.
Mais il est vrai, qu'au fil des ans, nous avons créé beaucoup de nouvelles obligations. Parfois en silo. Parfois redondantes. Parfois, sans tenir compte du quotidien des entreprises.
Cela a brouillé les objectifs.
Avec ces textes, nous démontrons trois choses :
1. L'Europe est un continent où il fait bon faire du business. Avec des règles claires, adaptées, pragmatiques.
2. L'Europe sait se réformer. Sans tronçonneuse mais avec des hommes et des femmes compétents, qui écoutent les acteurs économiques.
3. L'Europe sait simplifier sans renier ces objectifs.
Cet omnibus ne remet PAS en cause la décarbonation et notre objectif de 2050. Au contraire, nous simplifions la finance durable et les règles pour qu'elle soit vraiment utilisées.
La réforme d'InvestEU va permettre de générer jusqu'à 50 milliards d'investissements. La réforme du CBAM permettra de se concentrer vraiment sur les produits carbonés.
Il s'agit donc d'une première étape dans ce mouvement de simplification.
D'ici la fin du printemps, je présenterai un nouvel omnibus qui simplifiera la vie des PME et des ETI. Ainsi qu'une nouvelle stratégie sur le marché unique. Car il n'est pas de meilleure simplification que de renforcer notre marché unique.
Merci.
Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Good afternoon to all of you,
Many thanks to Teresa and Stéphane for the excellent collaboration and for their introduction of this package.
Over the course of the last few months, probably even longer, we have all felt a sense that Europe urgently needs to shift gears.
If anything, our experience in Davos but certainly also in Munich a couple of weeks ago have brought this into ever sharper focus.
We are all too aware that our slow economic growth, our dependencies and the fragmented market we still operate in are increasingly a problem, particularly against a backdrop of volatile geopolitics.
But we are not here to re-visit problems.
We are here to talk about what type of solutions Europe should put forward.
In fact, today we are going all out to protect, defend, and advance our economy.
The Clean Industrial Deal is a game-changer for Europe's economy.
It is a business plan to truly re-industrialise our European Union.
It will drive competitiveness, boost our strategic independence and accelerate climate action. Ideally, it brings all those three elements closer together.
Crucially, it proves that Europe also offers the most reliable and stable environment for investment.
To be clear, there is no question of turning our backs on climate action.
But we know that at the same time we cannot do this without bringing business and industry much more closely on board.
That is why we are making a strong business case for investments in decarbonisation.
That is why we are drastically simplifying the regulatory environment – so that businesses can focus on what they do best: growing and innovating.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The focus of our Plan is on two types of players:
One is the classic energy-intensive industries. Think about steel, aluminium, cement and utilities.
They need urgent support to confront high energy costs, unfair global competition and a set of complex regulations, which are eroding their competitiveness basically across all the Union.
Abandoning them is clearly not an option. Rather on the contrary, we should not just make sure they survive but they should strive on European soil.
That means together with the experts in these fields and the ones with the know-how to improve carbon emissions in their respective sectors we will work closely together to tackle these problems.
The second set of sectors is the new kids on the block. Think about clean tech companies on the verge of high growth, those rolling out charging infrastructure for EVs or pioneering new battery technologies. Particularly young new companies, highly dynamic, quick on their feet but also sometimes footloose and offers from other places might seem appealing to them.
We need to make sure that these companies stay and drive in the European Union and have the whole EU as their market, much more that it is the case today, with the right conditions that will be possible.
For the sake of time and clarity, let me also focus on a couple of actions that should change the game.
First, we are pulling out all the stops to bring energy prices down. There is no magic. We will not be able to do all of that from one day to the other, but we will make sure we will deploy much more clean energy and increase electrification in the next couple of years.
Some of these actions can and should more immediate.
On the tax front, we will be asking Member States to lower electricity taxes paid by energy intensive industries and get rid of extra fees that don't have anything to do with energy to make sure they help their companies.
We are also ensuring that the price is stable during a certain period for industrial players. Therefore, we will allow Member States to subsidize these industry players on an easier way by relaxing State aid rules.
And we are going to tackle permitting bottlenecks by putting forward practical solutions for industries looking to switch towards cleaner energy.
In the longer run, we also need to drastically increase our investments in grids, renewables and storage capacity. That is the only way to make sure energy becomes more affordable, more independent and we create a competitive edge.
Second, we are mobilising every available resource and leveraging many different funding avenues to drive an unprecedented surge in this type of investments.
We will be building on the success of our Innovation Fund. In doing so, we are introducing a new bank for industrial decarbonisation, partly based on the Emissions Trading System.
A Bank that if you add all up you could raise up to 100 billion in the next ten years.
But then if you leverage that, if you put private sector money next to that you could easily add up to €400 billion.
With this plan, we are aiming to decrease industrial emissions by up to 30%.
It gives a clear signal that we mean business. Putting serious money on the table using the EU ETS, which is many ways our strongest policy tool to reach our climate goals.
Third, we are making life simpler to do business in Europe because complexity and red tape are serious obstacles to innovation and progress.
I would talk about one example specifically given others will talk more extensively about cutting the red tape. That is the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM). In my view, there is an imperative add on to our ETS. It clearly is a force for good.
But we also have the opportunity to significantly simplify the design.
Our goal is to help companies reduce their carbon footprint without putting them at a competitive disadvantage.
If you do the numbers you will find the following. If we were to exempt, which we will, around 90% of companies within the scope of CBAM reporting, we will still be able to ensure the capture of over 99% of emissions. There is a relatively easy way to make sure we have almost the same result but cutting a huge tail in terms of bureaucracy that we were putting in our companies.
This is a first crucial step in a broader CBAM review. Today we are talking about simplification. This year we will be talking about downstream projects, on scope and exports.
We will continue to look at how we can help companies to make sure they advance.
Fourth and finally – we are taking some key steps to boost demand for EU-made clean products.
We will introduce some new criteria to ensure that products used in energy-intensive industries are resilient and sustainable.
We will also update public procurement rules in 2026 to give preference to European suppliers in key sectors.
We will be moving to a system than it is about more than just the lower possible price. We will launch a voluntary carbon intensity label for industrial products, starting with steel in 2025, followed by cement.
This type of labels will inform consumers and allow manufacturers to reap a premium on their decarbonisation efforts.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Given the uncertainties and challenges we are facing globally, it is natural to feel like we could be standing at a crossroads.
But for Europe, the path ahead is clear.
We will re-industrialise our economy and we will do so in the European way. We will be investing in the technologies and energies that will power a cleaner, more competitive and self-sufficient future.
We have a plan.
We will be putting the plan into action, and we will be starting today.
