18 January 2023

President von der Leyen at the European Parliament Plenary on the conclusions of the European Council meeting of 15 December 2022

...I want to lay out our answer. That is the Green Deal Industrial Plan. The Green Deal Industrial Plan will be built on four pillars. .. to help make this change happen – speed and access –, we will put forward a new Net-Zero Industry Act.

...These achievements show the power of Europe's collective ambition and will. And we need more of the same for the year ahead of us. And it is good to know that the Swedish Presidency shares this ambition. Because not only our energy systems are at a crossroads; the competitiveness of the whole of our economy needs to be maintained. This transformational task is huge. Just keep in mind that in less than three decades, we want to reach net zero. That is a huge transformation. Everybody knows that the key to manage – or even better to lead this transformation – is our clean-tech sector. The International Energy Agency estimates that the market for mass-manufactured clean energy tech will be worth around USD 650 billion a year by 2030 – more than triple today's value. And this is why, of course, the United States put forward the Inflation Reduction Action. We discussed the pros and the cons here in the Plenary in December.

Today I want to lay out our answer. That is the Green Deal Industrial Plan. The Green Deal Industrial Plan will be built on four pillars. The first pillar is about speed and access. We need to create a regulatory environment that allows us to scale up fast and to create conducive conditions for the clean-tech industry. It is about speed and access, over and over. If there is one thing the companies are complaining about, it is that, for example, permitting is too slow and that there are too many barriers. So, to help make this change happen – speed and access –, we will put forward a new Net-Zero Industry Act. What is it? Just think, this Act will follow the same model as the Chips Act. It will especially look at how to simplify and fast-track permitting for new clean-tech production sites. Competitiveness, that is the key word; enable the companies to go forward with innovation and with production – that is so crucial.

The second pillar of the Green Deal Industrial Plan will boost investment and financing of clean-tech production. We will propose to temporarily adapt our state aid rules to speed up again and to simplify. Easier calculations, simpler procedures, accelerated approvals. For example, with simple tax-break models. But at the same time, if we give state aid, and this is for the level playing field globally, we have to be very careful that we preserve the level playing field for businesses all across Europe, so in our Single Market. And thus, the other side of the coin of state aid, beyond the European Sovereignty Fund that I announced in my State of the Union, is that we will have to look into a bridging solution to provide fast and targeted financial support where it is most needed for the clean-tech sector. State aid as one side of the coin, investment as the other side of the coin.

The third pillar of the Green Deal Industrial Plan has to do with skills, people. Just two figures as an example. The battery industry will need 800,000 skilled worked by 2025. This figure is huge. So, this is why we launched the European Battery Academy. This is one part to address this topic. Or take the solar industry. One million skilled workers are needed by 2030. This is twice as many as we have today. This is a huge challenge, but it is also a huge opportunity to create good jobs, well-paying jobs, the jobs of the future. And this will be the absolute priority for our European Year of Skills.

Finally, the fourth pillar: we will follow through with our ambitious trade agenda. For clean tech to deliver net zero globally, there will be a need for strong and resilient supply chains. And this is linked to trade. We will seek to conclude new trade agreements with Chile, with Mexico, with New Zealand, with Australia. We will do everything to progress with India, with Indonesia. And we now have a unique window of opportunity to finally take forward the EU-Mercosur agreement.

Commission

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