At her confirmation hearing in the European Parliament on 12 November, Teresa Ribera, Executive Vice-President and Commissioner-designate for Clean, Just and Competitive Transition of the EU, will stress that decarbonisation and EU competitiveness are “inseparable” objectives that must be achieved “in a fair manner”.
Questioned by MEPs on the implementation of the ‘European Green Deal’ acquis, the Commissioner-designate, in written answers to European Parliament questions published on 23 October, stated that she intended to work with the future College of the European Commission to ensure regular monitoring of the implementation of the Pact in order to achieve the 2030 climate objectives. She also says she wants to work with the Member States to finalise and implement the objectives described in their respective National Energy-Climate Plans, which “will feed into the proposal for a 2040 climate target” (see EUROPE 13433/6).
Ms Ribera went on to outline a series of new proposals and initiatives that will be launched at the start of her term of office, including the ’Clean Industrial Deal’, the ‘Circular Economy Act’, the Decarbonisation Accelerator Act, the ‘Chemical Industry package’ (see EUROPE 13482/14).
In her view, the long-awaited ‘Clean Industrial Deal’ should “unify the EU’s tools for prosperity, competitiveness, decarbonisation and social fairness, building synergies among them”.
The former Spanish minister also indicates that she will be coordinating work on a ‘Water Resilience Strategy’ and working with the Commissioner-designate for Climate, Wopke Hoekstra (see EUROPE 13507/7), on the presentation of a ‘European Climate Adaptation Plan’.
It should be noted that the candidate justifies the importance of the regulation setting CO2 emission performance standards for cars and vans (see EUROPE 13121/13) in achieving the EU’s climate ambitions, supporting “clear targets from 2030 onwards, a 100% reduction target from 2035”.
On the energy front, Ms Ribera confirmed the European Commission’s intention to rapidly present a roadmap for a complete withdrawal from Russian energy imports (see EUROPE 13506/12).
She will also work in partnership with Commissioner-designate for Energy, Dan Jørgensen, to build a flexible, integrated and digitalised European energy system, announcing a strategic roadmap for digitalisation and AI in the energy sector.
As far as nuclear energy is concerned, the former minister, known for her reticence towards this energy source, is content to acknowledge the work of the Industrial Alliance on Small Modular Reactors (SMRs), which aims to deploy the “first SMR projects in the EU by early 2030”, in compliance with “the highest standards of nuclear safety”.
Going “faster and further” in granting State aid to decarbonise the economy. If confirmed, the Commissioner-designate will also be responsible for leading European competition policy.
Taking on board the main principles of this policy (targeting failing markets, avoiding overcompensation and undue distortions of competition), Ms Ribera points out that the EU framework on State aid, which has been acclaimed by the Member States, is already making it possible to support the decarbonisation of the economy. We now need to go “faster and further” in this area, she stresses.
This will involve simplifying and speeding up the procedures for notifying and granting public aid under the Clean Industrial Deal. The future regulatory framework, which will draw on the experience of the Temporary Crisis and Transition Framework (see EUROPE 13510/25), will have three objectives: - accelerating further the roll-out of renewable energy generation; - deploying industrial decarbonisation and energy efficiency, in particular for energy-intensive sectors; - ensuring sufficient manufacturing capacity for clean tech in Europe, especially where there is a risk of such investments being diverted to third countries due to subsidies available there.
“In doing so, I will ensure that cohesion objectives and the integrity of the Single Market are preserved”, promised Ms Ribera.
However, the candidate warns, the EU cannot afford the luxury of “subsidy races between Member States, with larger and richer Member States undercutting smaller, less wealthy ones”.
Eager to apply the existing EU competition rules rigorously, particularly in the digital sector with the DSA/DMA legislative package, Spain’s political leader believes it is necessary to better target surveillance on the measures that create the greatest distortion of competition. She undertakes to review the horizontal guidelines governing mergers and acquisitions and to consider “all options” for tackling the issue of acquisitions of innovative start-ups aimed at killing competition in a promising market (‘killer acquisitions’), in the light of recent European case law (see EUROPE 13474/12).
Finally, when asked about Mario Draghi’s recommendation to set up a new instrument to resolve structural difficulties (tacit collusion, consumer vulnerability, excessive dependencies) in certain markets without infringing competition rules (see EUROPE 13478/1), the Commissioner-designate confined herself to envisaging “an in-depth reflection” on the issue.
See Teresa Ribera’s written answers: https://aeur.eu/f/dzu (Original version in French by Pauline Denys, with Mathieu Bion)