15 February 2023

Opening remarks by Commissioner McGuinness at the European Parliament plenary debate on the Green Deal Industrial Plan

On 1 February, the Commission presented a Green Deal Industrial Plan to make Europe the home of clean tech and innovation on the road to net zero. It is built on four pillars: the regulatory environment, financing, skills and trade.

...Europe is being tested by war, by geopolitical tensions, by trade rivalries and climate change.

We need to show that we can step up to these challenges and we need to continue to show our resolve as we work towards 2030 and net zero by 2050.

Half the emissions we need to cut by 2050 depend on technology not yet ready for market, or technology that does not yet exist.

That is a challenge, but it is also an opportunity.

The EU's net-zero startups were worth over €100 billion in 2021, twice as much as they were worth the year before.

And that will keep growing: economic growth, competitiveness and innovation, on the one hand; sustainability on the other.

These objectives are not in conflict. But we need the right environment in Europe to make sure these goals support and build on each other.

On 1 February, the Commission presented a Green Deal Industrial Plan to make Europe the home of clean tech and innovation on the road to net zero.

It is built on four pillars: the regulatory environment, financing, skills and trade.

And I want to just briefly go through those four pillars.

First, on the regulatory environment, this is about speed and access.

We need to enable the clean-tech industry to scale up and to scale up fast.

We know that companies complain that permitting is too slow and there are too many barriers to bringing innovations to market.

So one of our main measures will be a new net zero industry act that will, for example, look at how to fast-track permitting for clean-tech production sites.

Second, financing - money.

We need to speed up investment in clean-tech production.

We will adopt our State aid rules to speed up and simplify processes on a temporary basis for the decarbonisation of industries and for sectors we need to reach net zero.

We will have easier calculations, simpler procedures and accelerated approvals.

But we will also pay attention to the level playing field in the single market.

Not all Member States have the same capacity to use State aid.

As we mark 30 years of that single market, we should recognise the value of our State aid rules for all Member States, big and small.

Commission

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