With the publication of the European Commission’s draft Net-Zero Industry Act just days away, stakeholders are scrambling to influence its trajectory. There is concern among several think tanks and interest representatives.
The draft version of the Regulation (see EUROPE 13135/1) is “deeply worrisome” for the Brussels-based think tank Bruegel, which describes the text as protectionist. According to the authors of the note published on 9 March, the elements of the Regulation will “likely set back, rather than accelerate, the EU green transition”.
They fear that the text will send a negative signal to EU partners: “To trading partners in the developing world that are seeking to climb the value ladder, it will look just as bad as the US Inflation Reduction Act”.
The future Regulation provides for facilities for establishing industrial zero-emission technology projects in the EU, such as faster authorisation procedures and administrative support. The draft Regulation detailed by EUROPE also envisaged a kind of European preference in public procurement. One of the award criteria for the projects was indeed “the proportion of the products originating in third countries”. However, this reference has been removed from recent versions of the text, according to one source.
For several stakeholders, the EU should focus more on regulatory simplification. “Piling regulations are the number one problem for companies after high energy prices”, according to a survey by employers’ representative BusinessEurope.
In its action plan published on 13 March, BusinessEurope believes that the EU should take into account the fact that this constitutes an administrative burden for economic actors. This is particularly the case for information reporting obligations, according to BusinessEurope, which is calling on the EU to reduce the overlap between different texts that duplicate reporting obligations on environmental, social and governance issues.
The European Centre for International Political Economy (ECIPE) concurs, denouncing fragmented Regulations as a disadvantage for EU businesses.
This also applies to the SME envoy, SME United. “The trickle-down effect of legislation and the cumulative effect on SMEs should be taken into account”, according to the organisation’s Secretary-General, Véronique Willems. (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)