Teresa Ribera, the European Commission’s (EC) competitiveness commissioner, has today (26 February) said that some aspects of the EU’s Green Deal programme will need be watered down to ensure the bloc’s ability to compete internationally.
Her remarks come as EC president, Ursula von der Leyen, is in Antwerp today to announce plans for reviving the European economy, including a new bill that will revise the provisions of the Green Deal.
‘Reality has evolved’
Ribera spoke to the FT to say that “the global reality has evolved” on international trade and economic growth. As a result, she said, “we may need to think to what extent these things that were there need to be updated”.
European leaders have expressed concern over the lack of economic growth across the bloc. According to Eurostat, the EU achieved just 0.1% GDP growth in the fourth quarter of 2024 – a situation which could be worsened by new tariffs implemented by president Donald Trump’s administration in the US.
Ribera said that the EU must “ensure that there’s a story of growth and prosperity” and that there is “a fine line that we need to strike” between achieving sustainability and sustained economic growth.
Industrial plan
Von der Leyen’s Antwerp visit will see her launch an industrial strategy aimed at boosting the European economy.
An ‘omnibus’ bill aimed at cutting back the Green Deal is set to be published today as part of the event. The bill has “nothing to do with the chainsaw”, according to Ribera in an interview earlier this week.
Von der Leyen has also had a word for the European steel industry, which faces new tariffs on goods exported to the US. She has promised a “strategic dialogue” with those in industry to build a plan for addressing the tariffs.
‘Simplification’
Measures implemented as part of the EU’s efforts on carbon emissions and limiting environmental damage include the Digital Product Passport (DPP), covered in detail in recent Chartered Institute of Export & International Trade webinar sessions, as well as the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) and the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR).
Ribera emphasised in her interview that the rolling back of some measures was a ‘simplification’ rather than wholesale ‘deregulation’, and that the EC remains committed to battling climate change:
“What we need to avoid is using the word simplification to mean deregulation. I think that simplification may be very fair to see how we can make things easier.”
Her focus is instead on finding where regulation overlaps or is redundant, she said. Heather Grabbe of economic think-tank Bruegel, however, suggested that proposed changes to the Green Deal “seem to go far beyond simplification which would make reporting easier, and they seem to be moving away from transparency, which is what investors have been asking [for]”.
More clarity
Karen McKee of oil giant ExxonMobil said conversely that there was a need for greater clarity on regulation, telling the FT that “competitiveness is the focus right now because it’s simply a crisis. We are achieving decarbonisation in Europe through deindustrialisation.”
A spokesperson for Ineos, the major chemical firm, echoed these thoughts. They said that, “a year on” from the previous Antwerp meeting on an industrial plan, “we have not seen the action necessary to stem the decline of European industry”.
This came after the announcement that CEO Sir Jim Ratcliffe would not be attending today’s event in Antwerp. The company added:
“Ineos has continued to invest in Europe. However, it is now an exception in a landscape of deindustrialisation and closures. Decarbonising Europe by deindustrialisation is idiotic.”
