On Wednesday 28 February, MEPs debated the issue of boosting competitiveness in the EU. The discussion had been added to the agenda at the request of the Renew Europe group, which is at the same time publishing a position paper on EU competitiveness.
MEPs were fairly unanimous in calling on the European Commission and Member States to put in place a stronger strategy to protect EU industry. This means reducing the administrative burden on businesses, providing European financial support, strengthening the internal market and ensuring full compliance with existing European rules.
The ideas put forward by Renew Europe, which proposes a 10-point plan, received fairly strong support. The group suggests, for example, the introduction of a commissioner responsible for enforcing European rules and strategic guidelines, such as the “one in, one out” principle for legislative texts.
It also called for the establishment of a European Sovereignty Fund to “continue reducing...[strategic] dependencies and avoid further fragmentation of the EU single market”.
These two proposals have received the support of the European Commissioner for Internal Market, Thierry Breton.
The issue of trade openness also features in Renew Europe’s document, which argues that the EU should continue to negotiate and sign free trade and investment agreements. The aim here is to diversify partners and avoid strategic dependencies.
Renew Europe and also Thierry Breton believe that, in pursuit of the same objective of reducing dependency, the EU should make full use of its trade defence tools. “I look forward to the outcome of the anti-subsidy investigation into Chinese electric vehicles (see EUROPE 13249/1), and I urge you to expand our thinking to other cleantech fields such as renewables”, he told MEPs. He added that the investigation recently opened into a Chinese subsidy in the context of a Bulgarian public procurement contract (see EUROPE 13352/4) would not be the last: “I can say here that others will follow”.
See Renew Europe’s policy paper: https://aeur.eu/f/b1z (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)