The think-tank Transport & Environment (T&E) and UNIFE, which represents the European rail industry, welcomed the proposal for an Industrial Accelerator Act (IAA), presented by the European Commission on Wednesday 4 March (see EUROPE 13821/1), but regretted certain loopholes.
Julia Poliscanova, Senior Director for vehicles and e-mobility supply chains at T&E, said that the proposal needed to be strengthened by the co-legislators “to truly give investors certainty that they can bank on Europe’s battery industry”. T&E has also criticised the eligibility for purchase subsidies of electric vehicles produced in free trade agreement (FTA) countries.
In addition, there is a risk that the proposal will drift away from its original aim, as it now covers non-strategic components of electric vehicles, such as seats and seat belts. The exclusion from the rules of cathode precursors, which account for over half of the battery cell value, is also “worrying”, according to T&E, as it will undermine building a local recycling sector.
UNIFE, for its part, says that the rail industry should be defined as a strategic sector by European policy-makers as part of the reform of the public procurement directives scheduled for later this year. If this is not done, “we could face an existential threat”, warned its CEO, Enno Wiebe. He pointed out that rail was at the heart of military mobility and European supply chains. (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)