Europe launches plan to bolster clean tech sector, aid ailing industries
The European Commission has today proposed making €100 billion available to support EU-made clean manufacturing, streamlining public procurement processes and simplifying state aid rules to give Europe’s ailing industries a boost.
The measures are part of a new Clean Industrial Deal under which the EU executive would provide support for energy-hungry industries that face “high energy costs, unfair global competition and complex regulations” while also boosting the clean-tech sector.
“The demand for clean products has slowed down, and some investments have moved to other regions. We know that too many obstacles still stand in the way of our European companies, from high energy prices to excessive regulatory burden,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement.
“The Clean Industrial Deal is to cut the ties that still hold our companies back and make a clear business case for Europe,” she added.
The deal is part of a wider package of proposals to cut red tape, lower energy costs and incentivise the green transition, which the Commission hopes will help Europe’s ailing industry compete better against rivals in China and the US.
In the US, President Donald Trump has been rolling back regulation to spur growth.
The European Commission is also due to unveil plans to loosen rules on corporate sustainability reporting and supply chain transparency that businesses in Europe say are a drain on time and money.
The Commission aims to reduce reporting burdens by 25% in an initial wave of measures in the first half of 2025, a target it says would mean savings of €40 billion for European companies.
Businesses and industry lobby groups frequently complain that bureaucratic processes in the EU hold back the bloc compared with the US and China, which have faster-growing economies.
“It’s a machine we have created in Brussels – I don’t know if we need a DOGE programme – plenty of civil servants, which are in fact there to create regulations. That’s a problem,” TotalEnergies boss Patrick Pouyanne said this month, referringto the US Department of Government Efficiency, which is overseeing a sweeping government cost-cutting programme.
“It’s a question, can Europeans really re-think their own model?” he added.
The Commission also set out its “Affordable Energy Action Plan” that it said would shave tens of billions of euros off the energy bills of households and industry.
The Commission said that would be achieved in part through tackling structural challenges that are driving up energy costs, notably a reliance on imported fossil fuels and the lack of full integration of the continent’s grid.
It said it wanted EU LNG buyers to aggregate demand to increase the bloc’s pricing power, among other measures.
Separately, the Commission also intends to exempt most companies from its planned carbon border tariff on the grounds that they produce only 1% of emissions in the scheme, a draft proposal seen by Reuters showed.
Article Source – Europe launches plan to bolster clean tech sector, aid ailing industries – RTE
