EURACTIV — 2025-02-18
News from Brussels
Brussels is gearing up to unveil a bold six-step plan to shield heavy industry and stake its claim in clean-tech, according to a draft seen by Euractiv.
Unveiled by Ursula von der Leyen ahead of her July re-election, the Clean Industrial Deal will be presented by her vice-presidents Teresa Ribera and Stéphane Séjourné next Wednesday.
The plan will define the EU's attempt to compete with China and the US for maintaining industrial production.
"Europe’s industrial base is central to our identity and essential for our competitiveness," the draft obtained by Euractiv states.
The plan identifies six factors called "business drivers": cheap energy, lead markets, financing, circularity and access to materials, global markets and skills.
But the most pressing question remains unanswered: money.
"EU industry requires immediate access to capital," as the document stresses.
With EU long-term budget negotiations about to kick off, the plan stresses the need for a multi-billion figure for industry guarantees – but does not yet commit to a figure.
It also sets a date for a strategy to bail out the EU's ailing auto sector – 5 March – and a steel plan for an unspecified date in March.
A chemicals package is to come in late 2025, as well as loosely-defined strategies facilitating the bioeconomy and sustainable transport.
In a move that is likely to draw fierce criticism from China and the United States, the plan also pledges to make a “preference” for European firms a “structural feature” of the bloc’s procurement market in “strategic sectors”.
It adds that such policies can help firms “overcome barriers to market entry” and provide an “incentive for manufacturers to ramp up production”.
“Targeted mandated and criteria for local content can align national spending with the EU’s broader decarbonisation and competitiveness agenda,” it notes, adding that a formal proposal to revise the EU’s current Public Procurement Framework will be introduced in 2026.
A “European preference principle” in defence procurement was recommended last year by former Italian premier Mario Draghi in his influential report on EU competitiveness. The proposal was quickly denounced by US business groups, who argued it would “unfairly discriminate against non-European companies”.
The proposal is also likely to open up Brussels to charges of hypocrisy by Beijing: last month, the EU’s executive accused China of “systematic discrimination” against European medical device manufacturers in bids for public contracts