The second meeting of inter-institutional negotiations on the ‘Net-Zero Industry Act’ (NZIA) is due to take place on 22 January (see EUROPE 13309/1). The issues surrounding this regulation are all the more important as it is one of the pillars of the 'industrial' part of the ‘European Green Deal’, the cornerstone of the policy led by Ursula von der Leyen during her presidency.
Together with the Chips Act (see EUROPE 13229/23), the Critical Raw Materials Act (see EUROPE 13292/6) and the reform of the electricity market (see EUROPE 13314/4), the NZIA represents the Union’s declared desire to transform its industry and achieve its climate objectives (see EUROPE 13272/20).
These negotiations will be intense, as the EU seeks to maintain its position in the race to manufacture and implement green technologies, in the face of China and the United States, which are eroding the competitiveness of the old continent.
The list of strategic technologies now includes nuclear technologies, to the satisfaction of France, which pushed hard for their inclusion (see EUROPE 13271/9). Companies will now benefit from accelerated procedures for obtaining the authorisations they need to set up their business. Similarly, an embryonic ‘European preference’ has been introduced in the version approved by Parliament (see EUROPE 13297/1).
With this legislation, Europe hopes to achieve 40% European production of the green technologies it uses. But the NZIA still has a blind spot: unlike the US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) plan, the EU does not envisage any funding to attract new factories. The STEP platform (Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform) was supposed to offer a semblance of a European sovereignty fund, but it has been rejected with little new money.
The finalisation of this legislation will be one of the most crucial in the Union, both in terms of the Single market and European competitiveness. The length of the negotiations will certainly depend on the willingness of the negotiators to give in to the political and economic urgency. (Original version in French by Isalia Stieffatre)