On Thursday 21 May, 15 European industrial organisations, notably including Eurochambres and Euromines, warned of the risk of authorisation procedures becoming one of the main obstacles to industrial deployment in Europe. They want the Industrial Accelerator Act (IAA) to include a precise definition of the EU industries that are considered strategic.
“Central to this vision is the concept of permitability: moving beyond purely procedural acceleration towards a system that strengthens whether projects can realistically obtain permits, maintain them over time, and operate within a framework of predictability, legal certainty, and legal robustness,” according to a press release.
The focus is thus no longer on “procedural speed alone [but] the broader conditions that determine whether projects are genuinely viable under Europe’s regulatory framework. This includes clear and proportionate eligibility criteria, regulatory predictability, consistency across permitting authorities, [...] and confidence that permits can be maintained over the lifetime of a project.”
The coalition makes five recommendations: integrate the IAA into a broader European regulatory framework that is aligned with texts such as the Net-Zero Industry Act and the Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA), extend the accelerated permitting procedure beyond specific sectors or geographical areas so as to cover a broader category of industrial transition projects, make Industrial Manufacturing Acceleration areas fully operational, strengthen legal certainty through clear definitions and effective procedural tools, and give single access points the role of genuinely coordinating the permitting journey, covering all legislative frameworks.
More information: https://aeur.eu/f/lzh (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)