During the last exchange of the mandate with MEPs from the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE), which was held on Tuesday 9 April, the Executive Vice-President of the European Commission responsible for the ‘European Green Deal’, Maroš Šefčovič, reviewed the achievements of the last five years and the priorities for the future with regard to energy security, the competitiveness of green industry and the objectives set out in the Deal.
When asked about implementing and monitoring these various objectives, the Vice-President indicated that the measures should be the subject of implementing acts and there should be a dialogue with partners “to ensure that success is achieved on the ground”.
He revisited the nine clean energy transition dialogues that had taken place in recent months with various industry players (see EUROPE 13386/3), and which will be the subject of a report on 10 April.
Mr Šefčovič spoke of the European Commission's intention to continue these dialogues with industry in the future and to include them more structurally within a “special platform” in order to “ensure ongoing interaction over the implementation of the Green Deal”.
He also welcomed the creation of the EU energy platform to aggregate the demand for gas and to make joint purchases (see EUROPE 13360/21). He hoped that this mechanism would be extended to hydrogen through the launch of a pilot project, as well as to critical raw materials such as cobalt and lithium.
“We could achieve this through a single platform, which has already been created, and this could have sub-sections depending on the raw materials we need so that we achieve better prices on the world market”, he said.
Mr Šefčovič also highlighted access to European funds and the need for investment in clean technologies, whether this was by using the levers of the European Investment Bank, or developing better economic models for the green transition that would be, based, for example, on incentives for the private sector such as green bonuses.
He also called for public procurement to be transformed “to ensure that companies with a low carbon footprint and sustainable business activity, and which treat their employees well, are rewarded for their actions and not punished by public procurement procedures that are always on the hunt for the cheapest alternative, far away from the EU”. (Original version in French by Pauline Denys)