Made in Europe: An EU Green Industrial Plan to respond to the challenge of US and Chinese protectionism – 19/1/2023

  • The EU needs to urgently formulate a response to US and Chinese protectionism.
  • US decarbonization legislation poses a threat of deindustrialization for Europe.
  • Europe needs a plan to support EU green, industrial and technological competitiveness, while protecting European cohesion and the single market, and promoting European strategic autonomy.
  • Relaxing EU state aid rules must be an inevitable first component of Europe’s response. But this would overwhelmingly benefit the stronger economies of Germany and France, undermining EU cohesion and the integrity of the single market.
  • Thus, the second component of EU response must be a European Sovereignty Fund, of a size commensurate to the magnitude of the challenge.
  • The new Fund must support value chain categories that include as many EU member states as possible.
  • SURE, extended to encompass the energy crisis and green transition, should be an integral part of the mix, and so should promoting technological skills and reskilling for the “Clean Tech Economy”.
  • Investment funding should seek to contribute to vertical integration, including as many stages in the supply chain as possible. It should contribute to the return of specific supply chains and production units from third countries to the EU and seek to include the EU’s weakest economies.
  • Subsidies should rise if the investment is cross-border in nature and carry a bonus if made in an EU region with a low GDP per capita compared to the EU average.
  • Funding could also promote European strategic autonomy by including cross-border partnerships of EU member states in the defence technology industry.
  • It should involve new funding rather than simply recycling money from existing programmes, and certainly avoid deploying undisbursed resources from the Recovery & Resilience Fund.
  • Read here in pdf the Policy paper by Alekos Kritikos, Senior Policy Advisor, ELIAMEP; Former senior official, European Commission; former Secretary General, Ministry of the Interior and George Pagoulatos, Professor of European Politics and Economy at the Athens University of Economics and Business; Director General, ELIAMEP.

 

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