After several weeks of discussions, MEPs of the European Parliament’s Committee on Industry (ITRE) have finalised their compromise amendments to the Net-Zero Industry Act (NZIA), 2 days before the vote due to take place on Wednesday 25 October.
These amendments, of which EUROPE has received a copy, differ quite markedly from the Commission’s proposal, particularly in terms of technologies and the role given to small and medium-sized enterprises.
Strategic ‘projects’. This is the biggest change to the original text. Gone are the two lists of ‘strategic’ and ‘net zero’ technologies: MEPs are keeping just one list of 16 categories, including nuclear power and CO2 capture technologies.
However, it is important to distinguish between strategic projects that will benefit from more advantageous installation conditions. To do so, they must meet at least three of the following criteria: - contribute to the EU’s resilience by adding production capacity for ‘net zero emission’ technologies for which the EU is more than 50% dependent on imports from a single country; - contribute to the EU’s competitiveness by adding ‘cutting-edge’ manufacturing capacity for technologies for which the EU exports more than 25% of its production; - contribute to the EU’s environmental and climate objectives, for example by implementing a low-carbon manufacturing process.
Contribution to EU sustainability and market access. MEPs substantially amended the ‘access to markets’ section and raised the sustainability criteria that projects must meet when they are put out to tender.
While the Commission proposed to take this contribution criterion into account for 15 to 30% of the overall assessment, the MEPs’ text raises this threshold to a minimum of 30%.
They have also added three pre-selection criteria for public procurement: - if part of the equipment used in the project comes from a third country, its percentage within the total supply must not exceed 50%; - this equipment must be “certified in terms of cyber security insofar as a Union or national cyber security certification framework exists for the equipment”; - projects must not originate from a country subject to restrictions for non-compliance with the International Procurement Instrument (IPI).
More support for SMEs. Several amendments have also been added to take SMEs into account. MEPs write that in order to “maintain competitiveness and reduce current strategic dependencies, [...] the EU should, by 2030, aim to achieve a 20% reduction of the general regulatory burden on industry [...] and a 40% reduction of the administrative burden for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and start-ups ”.
See the compromise amendments: https://aeur.eu/f/97m (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre)