A business plan for a low-carbon, competitive European economy

The European Union must become the global destination for green technologies. This is one of the stated objectives of the Clean Industry Pact, presented on Wednesday by the European Commission.

The idea is to make decarbonisation a factor in the continent's growth and reindustrialisation. The plan is designed to enable the 27 Member States to make the transition to a low-carbon economy and at the same time keep up pace with their Chinese and American competitors.

"The Clean Industrial Pact represents a paradigm shift in European industrial policy. For the first time, there is talk of European preference, particularly for public procurement, to encourage green technologies made in Europe," explains Neil Makaroff, director of the Strategic Perspectives think-tank.

"For the first time, we are also going to invest in value chains on a European scale, particularly where there is a gap. Typically, we have no lithium refining capacity, when in fact we need it to produce batteries," he adds.

The institution is therefore proposing to mobilise more than €100 billion in the short term. It also wants to offer businesses predictability. The aim is to reduce energy costs for industry, starting with energy-intensive ones such as steel and cement, and also households.

The institution also wants to take action in the clean technologies sector, which will be at the heart of competitiveness and growth.

According to Cleantech for Europe, which represents some twenty green companies, the pact is a step in the right direction.

"I think it instils a significant dose of pragmatism into the Green Deal, by recognising that private companies will have to do it and implement it to transform our economy", says Victor Van Hoorn, Director of Cleantech for