In a statement on the EU’s gas supply prospects for 2023, delivered on Monday 12 December, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen re-emphasised the importance of establishing a European sovereign wealth fund in the medium term.
“But we also know that in the midterm, we have to step up and there we will work on setting up a sovereignty fund to make sure that Europe continues to be the global leader in clean tech,” she said, highlighting the international and geopolitical threats, especially from the US (due in particular to the vote on the ‘Inflation Reduction Act’).
The aim, she re-emphasised, is to support European industry in making a successful transition to clean, affordable and secure green energy. “Therefore, this funding is necessary,” she told journalists.
The President announced the creation of this fund during her State of the Union speech in September, without saying more about the scope of the instrument and, above all, how it would be financed (see EUROPE 13021/5).
The Commissioner for the Internal Market (see EUROPE 13022/11), and the Commissioner for Economy, as well as France (see EUROPE 13035/31), were quick to call for the creation of a fund based on ‘SURE’ - the debt-based instrument for mitigating the socio-economic effects of the pandemic. However, Germany, Finland, the Netherlands and Austria are currently opposed. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)