Executive Vice-President Teresa Ribera

Thank you, Paula. And thanks to all of you for being here.

We have worked hard. It has been a very productive Commission meeting. We promised a Clean Industrial Deal within 100 days, and here we are on the 88th day delivering it. Ensuring we have the right answers in a fast-changing world.

Our vision is for Europe to lead as a clean manufacturing power. Europe needs real and concrete responses. We need a Clean, Competitive and Just transition.

We are here to act, deliver results, and stay true to our values. We know that our industry deserves a bright future, and we need to invest now because the future starts today. Europe has many strengths and we are ideally positioned to deliver. We have developed a proposal, and we seek the active involvement of Member States and social stakeholders.

The Clean Industrial Deal is Europes business plan to tackle the climate crisis, boost competitiveness, ensure economic resilience and retain talent. Especially the talent of our youth. The Clean Industrial Deal is a long-lasting proposal to keep Europe as an attractive hub for traditional industries, accelerating new clean technologies and circular business models that can compete worldwide.

It is a commitment to our people. It is a commitment to create quality jobs, build skills and offer opportunities for all – especially young Europeans.

It is a concrete and tangible document that lists short- and medium-term actions, providing the certainty and predictability that Europe needs to build trust.

Trust unlocks investments, boosts demand markets for clean tech and provides the conditions for companies to grow and compete at a level playing field.

We came up with an integrated approach, ensuring that all the relevant EU policy tools are aligned and work in the same direction, complementing each other and providing the best conditions to invest in the European Union.

This is why we work to ensure: (i) Access to affordable energy; (ii) Boosting clean supply and demand; (iii) Mobilising public and private investments; (iv) Powering the circular economy; (v) Fostering international partnerships; and (vi) Upskilling workers with quality jobs and ensuring social fairness.

To ensure access to affordable energy, today we have also adopted the first deliverable: an Action Plan for Affordable Energy that will be introduced by Commissioner Jorgensen later on. Paying attention to how we can make energy bills more affordable, ensure a well-functioning gas market, and build on an Energy Union effectively interconnected.

We need to be consistent with taxation. Recommending lower taxation in electricity if we want to electrify. Minding the importance of a more intense, smart and effective use of the grids and energy infrastructure, if we want to lower the fixed cost of our system.

Thinking on de-risking for investments. Thinking on how we play with corporate Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) for an indicative amount of €500 million to cover PPAs. Thinking on how we can work with the EIB also in terms of providing a grid manufacturing package and being clear for strengthening our grids and interconnectors systems. Counting on well-functioning and transparent gas markets and providing a level playing field for all.

Competition tools do also play an integral part in keeping gas markets competitive, ensuring a level playing field among price setters and offtakers as well as supporting Member States when designing the responses in situations of extreme price spikes or exceptional price environments to decouple the transition of high gas prices into electricity prices.

The right answers in the right relevant markets to ensure the level playing field and the benefits that it provides to consumers have always been a key driver for competition policy. It is still the case but as I said the world is changing, so are the markets and so must we.

Competition policy can also help in leveraging access to finance, with the aim to crowd in private investment and to ensure a level playing field across the Single Market.

This is why we will facilitate an investment-friendly environment through a new State aid framework, which will simplify and expedite support for renewable energy, industrial decarbonisation, and the manufacturing of clean tech products, ensuring effective use of public funds and encouraging private sector involvement.

It will also encourage Member States to implement tax incentives such as accelerated depreciation periods to make clean investments more financially attractive to businesses.

We have to build on the lessons learnt from the ongoing Important Project of Common European Interest to simplify and speed up the ones to come by assisting Member States more actively in the design phase, and by facilitating access to finance.

We aim to identify a Joint Roadmap for competitiveness and decarbonisation pointing up to €100 billion in funding, based on available funds in the Innovation Fund, additional revenues resulting from parts of the Emission Trading System as well as the revision of InvestEU, according to the rules and the identification of the European Competitiveness Fund in the Competitiveness Compass.

Our deal also places a strong focus on strengthening the availability of raw materials to ensure economic security and resilience. This also means improving our domestic policies to promote the efficient use of materials by placing circularity at the core of our decarbonisation strategy and also at the core of our industrial aims. This will not only improve the affordability and accessibility of essential materials but also reduce our dependencies.

Our deal establishes a framework that places circularity at its core. We will adopt a Circular Economy Act to accelerate the circular transition, leveraging our single market, enhancing the availability of key resources, driving innovation and creating fit for purpose conditions.

In addition, we will need to achieve our goals in close cooperation with our ability to act internationally.

Europe cannot realise its clean industrialisation objectives without partnerships on the global stage as well as without protecting the level playing field for our companies.

We will implement new Clean Trade and Investment Partnerships as a fast, flexible, targeted approach to trade, tailored to the concrete business interests of the EU and our partner countries.

However, it is clear that for a transition to a clean and digital economy we will need to count on the people. We need to ensure that this transformation is just and inclusive. We are committed to ensuring that the benefits of this transition are shared by the whole society.

The transformation of our industry requires skilled people and quality jobs.

Skills and quality jobs will be the foundation of an inclusive and equitable green transition, especially for regions reliant on high-carbon industries.

The shift to a clean energy is already creating jobs. By 2030, the EUs renewable targets alone will generate over 3.5 million new jobs in the renewable sector, offering a bright future to the workers and to the SMEs.

But this transition means change - some sectors will need to facing challenging circumstances. This is why we need to identify future-oriented skills, decent working conditions, and quality jobs for all.

To support workers in the transition we are further looking into social and upskilling conditionalities. We are trying to find how we can improve our capacity to monitor progress in implementing just transition policies.

We are well positioned to achieve more championing progress, performance, and sustainable growth rooted in our values.

And I am convinced that our industries and workers will benefit from this revolution.

I now pass the floor to my Colleague Executive Vice – President Séjourné and later on Commissioner Hoekstra.