At her confirmation hearing on Tuesday 12 November, the European Commissioner-designate for the EU’s Clean, Fair and Competitive Transition, Teresa Ribera, was questioned at length about strengthening EU-wide adaptation measures in response to climate change, in the wake of her country’s devastating floods (see EUROPE 13517/14).
Flooding in Spain. In her introductory speech, the current Spanish Minister for Ecological Transition herself referred to the extreme weather events that have affected the Valencia region, no doubt anticipating the many questions from MEPs on the subject.
She was heavily criticised by Spanish MEPs Jorge Buxadé Villalba (Patriots for Europe) and Dolors Montserrat (EPP) for her handling of the disaster, calling on her to acknowledge her responsibility for the deaths of more than 200 Spaniards.
Faced with this subject which monopolised the debate and saw several attempts to destabilise the debate on the part of mainly EPP MEPs, Ms Ribera called for “a distinction to be made between the national and regional levels”.
She stated that the national government was not to blame and that “it was not the factual or predictive warnings that failed, but the warnings to the public and the measures to protect the public”.
“Politically charged” debate. The Chair of the Committee on Economic Affairs (ECON), Aurore Lalucq (S&D, French), admitted at the end of the hearing that “there was a bit of electricity in the air”. “It was different from the other hearings”, she said.
The Vice-Chair of the Industry Committee (ITRE), Tsvetelina Penkova (S&D, Bulgarian), also regretted that the debate had been so “politically charged” and that national considerations had taken precedence over European policy issues.
Adapting to climate change. Also referring to the floods in Valencia, Pascal Canfin (Renew Europe, French) asked the Commissioner-designate what she intended to do to improve adaptation policies.
She acknowledged that Europe was not sufficiently prepared for these challenges, and emphasised the need to “strengthen public services” and the EU’s preparedness to deal with extreme weather events.
Similar to the response given by the Commissioner-designate for Climate, Wopke Hoekstra, at his hearing (see EUROPE 13520/2), Ms Ribera rejected several climate sceptic comments, including those made by Anja Arndt (ESN, German).
Automotive sector. Questioned again by Mr Canfin about the desire to strengthen the ‘Just Transition Fund’ to support players in the automotive industry in their decarbonisation, the Vice-President-designate said that she “could not commit to anything concrete”, but assured him that she would do her best to ensure that the transition was fair for the automotive sector.
On the more specific details of a potential ‘Transition Fund 2.0’, raised by Nora Mebarek (S&D, French), the Commissioner-designate did not make a clear statement either, redirecting the debate to the need to propose a ‘Clean Industry Plan’, which will help “both businesses and citizens”.
Farmers. Christine Schneider (EPP, German) and Veronika Vrecionová (ECR, Czech) criticised Ms Ribera’s policy, which they believe runs counter to the interests of European farmers. In particular, they referred to the Commissioner-designate’s past criticism of the “relaxation of the European Green Deal” led by the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, to take into consideration the demands of the agricultural sector.
“I’m not ignoring anyone, least of all farmers”, replied Ms Ribera, assuring that she would be working with the Commissioner-designate for Agriculture, Christophe Hansen, to step up dialogue with farmers, “better identify the problems and ensure that the responses are accessible”.
Nuclear. Asked by several MEPs, including Alexandr Vondra (ECR, Czech), about “similar” financial support for renewable and nuclear energy, the Commissioner referred to the response of the European Commissioner-designate for Energy, Dan Jørgensen (see EUROPE 13518/5). She stated that State aid had to be assessed “on a case-by-case basis”, and did not necessarily have to be the same for large nuclear power stations or investments in renewable energy.
Enforcing EU competition rules. Ms Ribera also stressed the need to ensure compliance with agreed EU competition rules in order to avoid fragmentation of the internal market and stimulate economic competitiveness and innovation, while supporting the ecological transition. However, she did not announce any new measures beyond those mentioned in her written answers to MEPs (see EUROPE 13511/17).
In response to questions from Jónas Fernández (S&D, Spanish), Rasmus Andresen (Greens/EFA, German) and Stéphanie Yon-Courtin (Renew Europe, French) on how to enforce competition law, the Commissioner-designate stressed the importance of using all available tools to guarantee a “level playing field” by tackling competition distortions and avoiding the crowding-out of players, whether by regulating digital platforms (‘gatekeepers’) or controlling foreign investment.
There is a strong demand to “simplify the instruments” in order to facilitate their application, she also noted.
Competition policy will help Member States to successfully decarbonise their economies. The drafting of the ‘Net-Zero Industry Act’ will be “a good opportunity” to update competition policy by supporting innovators, in particular through our policy on granting State aid. This policy will also be reviewed to make it easier to finance the construction of affordable housing, she also confirmed, in response to Martin Schirdewan (The Left, German) who advocated share ownership and tax criteria as conditions for aid to beneficiaries.
Avoid a subsidy race. But, whatever the sector of activity, the EU framework on State aid must not lead to “a subsidy race” between Member States, she warned.
Christophe Grudler (Renew Europe, French) asked the former Minister how “European industrial champions” could emerge in the space and defence sectors without distorting competition. On this point, “we need to reflect on the nature of the ‘relevant market’”, replied Ms Ribera, recommending that “issues that go beyond European borders” should also be taken into account.
Finally, when asked by René Repasi (S&D, German) what measures could be taken at European level to tackle the issue of ‘killer acquisitions’ of innovative SMEs, the Spanish politician noted that the Court of Justice of the EU had not followed the Commission’s analysis in the case of Illumina’s acquisition of GRAIL (see EUROPE 13474/12).
“The existing instruments do not provide sufficient answers to these problems”, she said, expressing her support for the search for “structural solutions”.
An evaluation meeting was held after the hearing, but no final conclusions were reached. Ms Ribera’s fate was effectively linked to that of the other Vice-Presidents heard on the same day, since the relevant committees agreed to postpone decisions until the day after the hearings, Wednesday 13 November (see other news). (Original version in French by Pauline Denys and Mathieu Bion)