The European Commission presented the Clean Industrial Deal yesterday, a plan aimed at supporting the competitiveness and resilience of European industry. According to this strategy, decarbonization is set to remain the driving force behind production growth on the continent. This is yet another document, following the Competitiveness Compass, in which the Commission focuses on combining climate commitments with support for European industry. However, there are opinions that climate policy is an unnecessary burden and a mistake.
Abolishing emissions trading, withdrawing from new emission standards for transport and buildings, and abandoning the Fit for 55 package are, according to PiS MEP Kosma Złotowski, necessary steps to make the European Union competitive on the global stage. According to the deputy, instead of the Competitiveness Compass proposed by the European Commission, Brussels needs deregulation. The Competitiveness Compass is a strategic document published by the European Commission on January 29 of this year. According to its authors, the main objective is to restore economic recovery in Europe by setting strategic directions with a focus on competitiveness. This is intended to become one of the fundamental operational principles of the European Union. However, the document has already faced criticism from some MEPs.
“A compass is needed especially when we are lost in the fog and do not know which direction to take. Here, we know that the goal is to increase the competitiveness of the European Union, which has slowed down over the past 15 years. The European Commission talks about the Compass, about direction, about objectives, but it does not specify how to achieve these goals. If the answer is simply more of the same, then it is certainly not the right direction,” says Kosma Złotowski, a Member of the European Parliament from Law and Justice (PiS), in an interview with Newseria news agency.
According to the deputy, the recipe for regaining a competitive position in the global market lies in broad deregulation, particularly in areas related to climate policy.
“The EU needs to abolish emissions trading (ETS) and refrain from introducing new ETS standards for buildings and transport. The European Union does not need Fit for 55, nor does it need the Green Deal. These are all restrictions that make the European Union increasingly less competitive,” he emphasizes.
In Złotowski’s view, these restrictions are “shackles” that limit the potential of the EU economy and weaken its position in the global market. He believes that current solutions benefit only a narrow segment of European industry.
“Abolishing ETS would mean that an entire major industrial sector, particularly in Germany, would collapse – factories producing wind turbines would go bankrupt because wind-generated electricity would no longer be economically viable. This, of course, would have consequences, but these are the consequences of mistakes that have been made in Western Europe for at least 40 years,” says Kosma Złotowski.
MEPs from the right side of the political spectrum view the stance of the newly elected U.S. President Donald Trump as an impulse for the European Union to wake up and take concrete steps toward improving competitiveness.
“Today, the European economy is half the size of the American economy, whereas they used to be comparable. So in the future, we may have a nice park, perhaps clean air, but we will have to pay for all of this, and the problem is that we won’t have the money to do so,” the MEP concludes.
In the newly introduced Clean Industrial Deal, the European Commission maintains its commitment to making the EU economy emission-free by 2050. It also announced specific action plans for various sectors – in March for the automotive industry, in spring for the steel and metals sector. Guidelines are also planned for the chemical industry and clean technologies.
The European Commission has pledged to lower energy prices and ease excessive regulatory burdens that currently hinder industrial competitiveness in Europe. Efforts will focus on energy-intensive industries that urgently need support in decarbonization and are struggling with high energy costs and unfair competition, as well as on the clean technology sector, which will be crucial for industrial transformation. The Commission emphasizes that the success of EU industry depends on lowering energy prices (which the newly presented energy affordability plan aims to address), increasing demand for green products, financing the transition, and ensuring access to critical raw materials.
